Dreaming the Sons of Salem
by Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh
Summary: Commission by azuring-galaxy. Team RWBY and NPR, as well as Cinder and her pawns, and Salem herself, find themselves in a weird dreamscape, with an even weirder host who is ready to show them what the future could've been, if only things had been a little different.
1. Chapter 1

**_Hello guys! Here is Khor, with a commission!_**

**_Commission by Azuring-Galaxy, story by Mika, commission for Mika._**

**_Enjoy this slightly different version of a 'reading a fanfiction' story! And finally, my characters gets a final look for how he actually looks!_**

Ruby Rose was tired.

A day suffering all the rigours and quirks of Beacon Academy would KO basically anyone, but she was used to it – she was used to even worse!

Where others had to worry about not falling asleep in Professor Port's class, whose speeches were the most narcotic substance in the world, she had to worry about figuring out the infamous Roman Torchwick's plan, because despite him being now behind bars, her uncle had warned her that something was amiss.

While the rest of the students moaned over the speed at which Professor Oobleck, or Dr Oobleck as he liked to be called, talked during his lectures, she groaned at the bruises and wounds she received while fighting the White Fang, arguably the most dangerous terrorist organization the world had to offer – though their members weren't all that skilled.

And of course she didn't have it easy when it came to combat either! The rest of the student body trained against other first years, while she had to face rogue Hunters like Torchwick himself! If that wasn't unfair, she didn't know what was.

However, a large part of her exhaustion that day wasn't due to all those problems, but to the Vytal Festival.

The Vytal Festival was, as the name implied, a festivity that happened every year, every time in a different Kingdom – which meant that every Kingdom would house it every four years. Its name was a bit misleading as Vytal didn't mean Remnant, but it was probably a wordplay with 'vital', meaning a festival they couldn't go without as it represented the peace, alliance and unity between the four Kingdoms.

The main attraction of the Festival was the tournament. Huntsmen and Huntresses from all around the world would come to watch the newest generations of Defenders of Humanity, the students of the four Academies, fight each other in the Amity Coliseum, the giant flying stadium powered by immense Gravity Dust crystals that always housed the tournament. It was a pain to move between Kingdoms, though.

Everyone knew the rules of the tournament – which was that other that not killing or critically injuring your opponents, the kid gloves were off. One could win by either knocking their opponent out of the ring -though fortunately not out of the stadium thanks to a Dust-powered forcefield- or by lowering their Aura to less than 15%.

What not everyone knew, or rather the civilians didn't know, was that it was a damn exhausting experience. Between the anxiety, the nerves, the wait and the actual physical effort of fighting, it was no surprise no one fought twice in the same day.

Ruby Rose was no different.

She had just watched Team JNPR triumph over Team BRNZ. She had to say, she kinda pitied Jaune. While Flower Power might've not been the best name, his teammates could've at least remembered it. And besides, who was she to talk? She used _Bumblebee_ and _Ladybug_! Who liked to have a combo named after an insect? Especially the first, since said insect was also very annoying.

Arkos didn't mean anything which was a plus, honestly – no one could call it stupid if they didn't know what it meant.

But anyway, all went well in the end. Even as she changed into her pyjamas, she could hear Jaune lecturing his team – as nice and kind as he was, Jaune was not a cinnamon roll. He could get annoyed and even angry, through the latter rarely at his team. He would probably lecture them on the importance of either remembering a combo name or speaking their mind when said name was chosen right in front of them prior the fight, and then he would send them all to sleep.

It wasn't that different to what she would've done anyway.

All around her, her teammates were getting changed as well. While outside was Autumn already, the weather was still warm – hot even. Blake didn't have any problem with it, since Menagerie was almost twice as warm as Vale in any season. Yang and she were used to it – Patch was still part of Vale and even if it was a bit more up North, the climate wasn't much different. Poor Weiss, instead used to the Atlasian cold, couldn't stand all that heat. The only thing keeping her from sleeping in her underwear was her 'properness' or whatever she meant by that.

Speaking of pyjamas, she had a sudden flashback of Jaune wearing his -admittedly ridiculous- bunny onesie. True, his claim of it being comfortable had to be true no matter how ridiculous it was, but it was a _bunny onesie_. Such a thing shouldn't even be taken into consideration as nightwear for a seventeen-year-old! He didn't seem to care though. As easily teased as he was, she'd never seen him being embarrassed by his onesie – and she had long since given up on figuring out why.

Still speaking of pyjamas, she changed into hers with a sleepy yawn. From JNPR's room, she couldn't hear Jaune and his team talking any more, though that was never much of a problem – Yang's snores were worse than any lecture. Surprisingly, no one on Team JNPR snored. She kind of expected Pyrrha not to, and Ren, but Nora didn't naturally snore, and Jaune explained how his sisters had 'taught' him not to snore since they often had to sleep in the same tent when out camping, until he got his own for reasons unknown.

She was so tired she yawned again. Tomorrow, she would need to elect the two moving up to the doubles round, the part of the tournament where only two people from every winning team had to fight. The final part were the singles, where one of those two would fight in a duel another winner. The one to win all battles would win the tournament.

With absolutely no offence to her sister Yang, she was pretty much sure Pyrrha would win. That Polarity of hers was just too broken to be defeated, and even without it Pyrrha was a monster in terms of skill and combat prowess. Defeating an Alpha Beringel would probably be easier.

Said Alpha Beringel, now shown running after Sun holding a cask of bananas by her sleepy and overworked mind, was the last thing she could remember thinking before she fell asleep.

/-/

Somewhere else, not on Remnant or even in that same universe, was a man. Or well, he looked like a man. His age was unknown and he liked it that way. That man sat in a room. It was a completely normal room, if one didn't count the dragons painted on the walls, floor and ceiling, the furniture shaped after dragons, the dozens of differently sized swords with dragon-inspired hilts hanging from the walls, a full set of dragon-themed armour with long claws on its gauntlets resting in a corner, and of course the sleeping black hatchling of the same race curled up on the amethyst-patterned blanket that covered the bed.

Other than that, it was a perfectly normal room.

The man himself was perfectly normal. Brown beard on his chin, shaved on the sides of his face. Brown hair kept in a ponytail that could've been a few inches shorter than Blake's if let down. Green-brown eyes not unlike those of the yet-to-be-noteworthy Oscar Pine, a simple farmer boy who didn't know he wasn't just a simple farmer boy. Standing at just shy of six feet, broad shouldered but not particularly robust or tough-looking, he was also dressed normally when one thought about it. He wore black jeans, tight not by choice but rather because any larger size would need a belt and he didn't like belts, a white long-sleeved shirt and a sleeveless black jacket – he kind of looked like a waiter in a restaurant, which was absurd since he didn't even like restaurants – he could cook just fine on his own.

Of course, he could only be described as normal if one didn't count the deep violet dragon wings on his back, the lower ends going as far as his shins while the tips being almost a foot taller than his head. Speaking of which, on his head there were two purple horns, tall and straight, about half a foot long, sprouting from just below his hairline, in his forehead. His eyes too weren't exactly normal as they had no white, but only an ellipsoidal black pupil in a sea of greenish brown. In addition to that, his skin was littered with small amethyst crystals embedded into the flesh, as if growing out of it like they normally did on stones and rocks underground. He had one on his forehead, two for each cheek and a smaller one on the tip of his nose, as well as three in either ear. Every knuckle was topped by a small crystal, as well as a larger one on the back of his hand. Even his wings weren't spared, with irregular-sized amethysts growing on the limbs but not on the membranes, giving them a sharp and serrated appearance. To top it all off, his hands were covered in dark purple scales, as was the skin around his eyes.

Oh, and when he yawned, his canines were pointy and sharp, and his tongue forked like a snake's… though most dragons didn't have forked tongues.

Other than that, he was perfectly normal.

The man was seemingly sleeping, but he would only appear as such to people not used to Wanderers.

Wanderers were, to put it in the simplest way possible, people capable of projecting their conscious mind into other universes and dimensions, solidifying it into a physical body -though some preferred to keep themselves more ghost-like for personal reasons- and interact with those universes. This ability also gave them more or less omnipotence, as they weren't limited by their bodies, but only by their mind: whatever they could think, they could do.

However, sometimes Wandering required them to focus on their projection more than on their surroundings. To prevent grave accidents -which had still happened at times-, many Wanderers chose to perform this feat only in safe environments, where no harm could befall them – and maybe where they had a way to know when it was dinner time.

The man was a Wanderer. One of the peculiarities some Wanderers shared was their choice to create a whole universe for themselves, to store their soul and mind in, to find better harmony than they did in their home universe. That room was no exception. And neither was the man's appearance.

Finally, the man opened his eyes and stretched, wincing when his back popped painfully. As much as he liked his wings, they were hell on the back, especially for someone always standing upright instead of crouched or on all fours.

Unless he was being less efficient than normal, all should've been ready. The only thing he regretted was needing to stay awake instead of going to sleep like he'd just watched the people of Remnant do.

Without a word, he laid face-down on his bed, carefully avoiding the sleeping hatchling. Normally, he liked being face-up more, but without knowing for how long he'd need to stay there, his wings might cramp. Which was always horrible.

After a few seconds to reorganize his thoughts and plans, the man closed his eyes again.

/-/

Ruby Rose opened her eyes to a world she could only describe as fuzzy. Everything around her looked like it had been drawn with oil paint, but was as solid and three-dimensional as the real world.

In comparison, her own body stood out a _lot_ more, since it was the only thing that looked real in that painted world. Thought she didn't remember changing into her usual attire before going to sleep.

Sleep…

Of course! That had to be a dream. There was no other possible explanation for what was happening. Especially, there was no other possible explanation for why the world had suddenly decided it liked oil painting more than the normal reality. Though if she had to be honest, she kinda liked this dream. On the long term, it would probably give her a headache, but well, not all dreams were perfect.

As she walked through the dreamscape, which kind of looked like Beacon's mess hall to be honest, she realized one thing. There were no sounds. Her dreams usually involved sounds, even just everyday life sounds she heard all the time. However, this dream didn't seem to have them. All was silent, and she didn't like it. Her father used to say she didn't like silence too much because it let her hear her own thoughts, but she knew better, as did her uncle Qrow. Perfect silence was unnatural and something to be wary of. One should've never been with their guard down when all was silent.

She grabbed her Crescent Rose, happy to find it there, and deployed it. Maybe she would need it. Just to test it, she jabbed the point into a wall.

The wall ripped like an actual painting, lacerating down the middle and revealing a more real-looking room beyond.

And in that room, she could see six people sleeping, six people she knew very well – heck, she slept in the same room as three of them every day, and the other three lived just across the corridor!

/-/

Cinder Fall was confused, very confused.

She never had a dream like that. All around her, the world seemed to be made of solid, unmoving flames. Her team's dormitory was a sight to behold. The window was made of a large rectangle of crystal clear azure flames that still allowed her to gaze through into. Her bed was a red inferno with a white flame for pillow. Her wardrobe was a tall brown flame with bronze small flames for pommels.

As much as she could love fire, that was definitely overdoing it.

She went to the door, another tall brown frozen flame, and gingerly reached out for the doorknob. It didn't burn her. Confused but relieved to be able to touch things, she opened the door, only to find herself in a corridor whose walls and floor and ceiling were made of stony grey unmoving fire. She was really starting to be creeped out.

Not only that, but she couldn't hear any sound, and any warrior would know that it's too unnatural to be completely silent. It wasn't even the kind of silence heard before a predator struck, or the quiet before the storm. It was a complete silence that could only be associated with death, or powerful magic, like her mistress's. Neither reassured her.

Walking on top of solid fire was a new experience for her. While the grey flames licked her calves, the core of the inferno was solid enough for her to walk on without problems, even with her heels.

Without hesitation, she headed for the mess hall. If it was a dream, then moving was probably the best course of action. If it wasn't… then any surviving student would be gathered in the mess hall by the professors.

The morbid thought sent a small shiver down her back. There was a reason why she always hated dreams. One never knew whether they were good ones, or just waiting to turn into terrifying nightmares.

As she drew her swords, she took a bit of comfort in knowing she still had them with her, at least. Whatever weird dream or reality that was, she wouldn't need to face it on her own.

It didn't take long for her to arrive to the mess hall – the dormitories were close to it for the obvious reason everyone needed breakfast -and most importantly a good source of caffeine- before classes, even her. _Especially_ her. Being far better than any student her age meant she was bored by more or less every single class in Beacon… even Combat Class.

However, when she arrived, she saw that the flames gradually disappeared, leaving a more normal floor and walls in their wake.

Entering, she saw she wasn't alone. Team RWBY was there as well, with their leader knelt by a sleeping Weiss Schnee. Three quarters of Team NPR were there too, their leader missing from the picture or maybe somewhere else. And also the remaining three members of her team were there, seemingly fast asleep on the ground, halfway across the hall from the other students.

Frowning, she cautiously went over to Neo and checked on her, finding her to be in fact asleep. "Ruby," she called out, startling the younger girl. While she didn't enjoy conversing with the child, she didn't hate it like Emerald did – despite her plan to destroy Beacon, she wasn't above some casual conversation with some students. She just couldn't stand the way the crimsonette could go on talking with seemingly no end to her words. "What happened?"

If that was a dream, then maybe Dream-Ruby would give her some clues. If it wasn't, then she would _certainly_ shine some light on the whole event.

"I think I'm dreaming," she replied lightly. "But I don't understand. I never dreamed about things like these before, and never about you or your team… no offence, of course!" she hurried to add.

Cinder narrowed her eyes. "We can't both be dreaming," she claimed tensely. "Which means it's likely neither of us is."

_That_ seemed to unnerve the girl. "Y-You think this might be real?" She chuckled nervously. "But… how? I didn't hear anything, and everything changed so much, as if by magic!"

For the girl, it might've seemed impossible. For someone who knew magic was far from a mere fairytale, it was very real and very terrifying.

Cinder was a powerful, skilled and proud warrior, but part of being a warrior was knowing when she was outmatched, and whoever had been strong enough to cause all that was clearly more than strong enough to beat her. For a second she thought Salem might've been the cause, but then she dismissed the thought – Salem didn't want to reveal herself to the world until all the Kingdoms had fallen. It would make no sense for her to show up at the stronghold of her bitter enemy, Ozpin.

Which left him as the possible cause. Him, or the gods themselves. Given how weakened he was after wasting all his magic in empowering his lackeys, she doubted he had enough to cast such a powerful enhancement.

She didn't want to think the gods themselves might've been behind it, but there weren't many other options.

"Be on your guard, and wake your friends up," she instructed the girl. Those were people she would watch burn in a week or so – but she wasn't above allying herself with them if it meant they'd be stronger against whoever or whatever had distorted the world like that.

Turning to her own team, she decided it was time they woke up.

/-/

She didn't know how exactly it had happened, but she intended to find out.

Even if physically she hadn't needed to sleep, she could often get mentally tired as her work was one extremely taxing on the mind. She had thus decided to take a break and rest for a while on her bed, not meaning to fall asleep. Apparently, it had happened anyway. Just like one could eat even after dinner, one could fall asleep even if they weren't excessively tired.

However, waking up just outside of Beacon's mess hall wasn't something she ever thought would happen. All around her, the world was warped – everything looked metallic. The floor, walls and ceiling were made of worn-out gold, so old it was almost worthless. Windows and doors were made of silver covered in dirt and age-old dust. Everything looked like it had once been magnificent, but was now woebegone and ancient beyond comprehension.

She abhorred it. Such beauty, destroyed by the carelessness and the centuries. Despite not being attached to things like most people, she could still appreciate art and precious gems and metals used as decorations. She disliked wasting them by hoarding them or selling them for money – the sparkling minerals held a beauty no coin could match.

She recognized her surroundings, despite having never been there in person. She'd been told a lot about Beacon, and she knew it shouldn't have looked like that.

Against her common sense, she headed towards the cafeteria, from where she could hear voices talking, shouting, arguing. She recognized a few of those voices.

The closer she got to the doors, the less metallic the world looked. Ruined gold gave way to cured stone, marble and bricks. Violated silver was replaced with glass by the windows and wood by the doors. Little by little, the warped world revealed itself to be more real than she initially thought.

A single hand was more than enough to move the large wooden doors that gave onto the cafeteria.

As she had expected, familiar and unfamiliar faces were waiting for her in that room, and turned to look at her when she entered. A few of them frowned, probably trying to remember where they had seen her before, while the others were just surprised to see her there.

She knew it would be hard to be recognized by anyone. Her pale blond hair, wan skin and light blue eyes might've made her beautiful, but they were far from unique. If anything, they made it harder for them to remember who she was.

"This is a most confusing dream," she finally spoke, startling some of them, as she walked into the room with slow elegance and majesty. "Especially because I do not remember personally meeting some of you, yet I am seeing you so perfectly detailed in my dream."

"M-Mistress?" The woman turned to look at one of the female students, confused as to why she hadn't used her real name… but unless hers wasn't a dream and it was all really happening, she couldn't see why she should hide her name from those unknown, most probably harmless students. And given her current looks, she was certain she was in a dream.

"My dear Cinder, why aren't you using my name? I thought you didn't like calling me such," she replied, her melodic voice surprising the woman even further.

"M-Mistress, w-what are you doing here?" Cinder stole a glance at the students behind her. "And… what happened to your hair and eyes? You look… different…"

"My dear child, this is my natural appearance, from an age long gone and forgotten – do you not remember what I told you?" she narrowed her eyes at her underling. As gracious of a superior as she was to her underlings, she wouldn't tolerate if one of them forgot the very reason why they fought. "As for why I am here, I'll admit I do not know the answer myself. It appears this dream of mine is odder than I thought."

"Miss, we don't think this is a dream," the young Silver-Eyed warrior spoke up, making her hide a grimace of distaste. While silver eyes were an absolutely wonderful eye colour, the Wizard had forced an unstable magic into them, gifting every silver-eyed soul with the power of petrifying or even destroying Grimm completely. She wouldn't lie and say it hadn't been a wise move, but still she thought that if the Wizard was in such need of warriors, then forcing his magic to move down the generations without giving him any control whatsoever on who was gifted by it was not the right way. That was a mistake he had made more than once.

"It has to be," she replied firmly. "There is literally no other option – I would not look like this, if this were to be reality."

"_**You are right, Lady Salem, this is a dream – but it is not just your dream.**_"

Everyone was startled by the disembodied voice, and the woman quickly moved closer to the group to be able to protect her servants if she needed to – whatever that was, if it had been powerful enough to speak to her while she was dreaming, there was a chance it was powerful enough to actually fight her.

That, and despite her power she still preferred to have backup, even if said backup was just a group of illusions created by her dreaming mind.

The cafeteria's doors opened once again, and a very strange man walked in.

/-/

The Wanderer observed the reactions of the people before him in mild interest before continuing. "As I was saying, this is definitely a dream – but is it _just_ a dream? I am sure all of you believe this to be _your_ dream. Well, let me clear your mind." He stopped a dozen or so feet away, giving them space. "This, is a collective dream. All of you are dreaming, and your dreams have been weaved together like strands in a web."

"What?" The younger of the two blondes, whose hair reached her rear and was so voluminous it acted as a cloak for the girl. "How's that even possible?"

"I believe some machines might be able to successfully connect minds like this," the white-haired girl with a ponytail askew on her head spoke up. "I think they might be similar to virtual reality devices, reading the brain's-"

"It's amusing to watch people try to explain something like this in such a complicated way, all the while failing to consider the simplest option. How did this happen?" The man smirked lopsidedly for a second. "Magic."

He then raised a hand. "Please, spare me your rants on how magic doesn't exist – after all, if magic didn't exist, I wouldn't be here right now, but in my bedroom, reading or sleeping. Instead here I am, talking to you in your dreams, and connecting your minds so that you can all interact with each other."

The white-haired girl looked like she still wanted to argue, but the girl with red-tipped black hair was faster. "Okay, dreams aren't supposed to make sense so I guess we can accept your explanation. But then…"

"Why?" the red-haired girl with a ponytail finished her thoughts. "Why would this dream even happen?"

"I'm glad you asked. It's actually very simple: I want to show you something. I hope you will find it enlightening. I will not disclose who you are to the others, but feel free to introduce yourselves if you need to – I am not limiting you in any way." The man gave a small bow. "Starting with me. I am Lord Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh, and my list of titles is far too boring to mention."

"You are a lord?" the black-haired girl with a bow on her head asked.

"There are many kinds of lords, and many ways to obtain that title," the man cryptically answered. "Now, if you wish to introduce yourselves, I beg you to do so now, before we move onto the topic I wanted to tell you about."

"My name is Lady Salem. I have no last name that I care to remember," the older blonde went first.

"I'm Ruby." Normally, the girl would've probably said more, or in a more cheerful tone, but the man was just too weird -and frankly creepy with those crystals embedded into his skin- to let her guard down.

Her friends followed her lead.

"Weiss Schnee."

"Blake."

"Yang Xiao Long."

"I'm Pyrrha."

"Nora."

"My name is Lie Ren."

"Cinder Fall, and these are Mercury, Emerald and Neo." The woman dressed in red introduced her teammates as well as herself, before looking back at the man in what seemed like curiosity. "You said we are dreaming… then why are you here? Are you dreaming as well?"

"I am the one who made you dream – do you not think I could slip into this dream as well?" The now named Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh allowed himself a small smirk at his own rhetorical question. "Now, however, I wanted to show you something, something from another universe, maybe from another dream – but beware, because this will be as enlightening as it will be painful to watch."

"Why should it be painful?" Mercury asked suspiciously.

"You shall find out," the man smiled thinly before the world around them warped and changed. "You will be standing right in the middle of things, but don't worry – nothing can hurt you but yourselves. It'll be like watching holographic projections, or illusions. I hope you will enjoy what little you'll be able to enjoy, and learn from the rest."

"Wait!" Ruby exclaimed as the man seemed to fade a bit. "Why are you doing this?"

He smiled again. "Well, that would be telling. Let's just say, there's an azure galaxy involved in this."

And with that, he faded out of existence just as their surroundings morphed back into focus, showing what looked like a battlefield.

_**"I will forge a world that even the twin brothers will be envious of. A world that will know peace and calmness…" Queen Salem, Ruler of a hundred worlds**_

"Wait, is that you?" Yang turned to glance at Salem, who nodded pensively.

"Indeed. Unifying and bringing peace to the world has been my goal for a very long time, even though my ways have changed and varied a lot during the years. It appears that whatever vision Lord Khor is showing us, it involves me reaching my goal."

"You want to conquer the world?" Blake asked bluntly.

"If it is the only way to stop the bloodbath of people killing each other over small differences such as nationality or appearance, then yes," she replied steely. "I am ready to sacrifice lives if it means that everyone else and the future generations will be able to live in a world without wars."

The students exchanged glances. While world peace was truly a good objective, not all ends justified the means used to obtain said ends.

"But wouldn't that be committing the same crimes you want to stop?" inquired Ren, frowning ever so slightly. "Killing people who don't agree with you and forcing others to obey your rules?"

"I never said nor thought mine was a painless goal where no one will suffer," she replied callously. "There will always be people who value their own wealth and opinion more than they do other people's lives – and those people have to be dealt with. My goal would be reached with bloody means, but eventually it would lead to peace and prosperity, if handled correctly."

"But it would still be a crime," noted Ruby.

"Some actions are crimes only in certain situations," Cinder spoke up suddenly, knowing that she had more experience talking to people as naive as the students than Salem did. "If you injure or even kill a criminal about to harm or kill civilians, and you are a licensed Huntress, then yours would not be assault or murder but an unfortunate event that forced your hand. Why do you think so many Hunters are so arrogant? Their job protects them from the law a lot. So would it be a truly unforgivable crime to harm people to save millions more?"

The students glanced at each other, not really able to give an answer. Usually, they would've said that killing people was always killing people, but she had a point – criminals had to be stopped, sometimes even with the use of lethal force. No one liked the idea of a unity brought with a peace sign in one hand and a loaded rifle in the other, but they couldn't deny that, if it worked, it would be an improvement despite its cost.

Morals versus long term benefits were often a hard battle, and none of the students was prepared to face it already. They chose to remain silent, though they didn't stop thinking about it.

**-unknown sector, Rebel controlled world-**

**"Keep firing! Keep those things off the wall!" A commanding voice yelled as dozens of armored soldiers were firing into the enemy force behind their high walls. Gun turrets fired red beams nonstop at the enemy, some began to overheat and erupt in flames, consuming the gunner. The commander watched as his soldiers fought with all their might. They had rebelled against the tyranny of the Imperium, fighting off those loyal to them in their system and even keeping reinforcements at bay! For a time their armies were strong, being able to keep their sector and planets safe...until they came.**

Nearly everyone recoiled at the scene. While Salem and her underlings had seen their fair share of death -often by their own hand-, the change had still been sudden and they had been startled more out of surprise than out of disgust or horror.

"What…" Weiss didn't finish her question, trailing off as she observed the carnage going on in the dream all around her, flinching when one of the soldiers ran straight through her as if she or them didn't really exist.

"A war, it would seem." Salem commented. She had seen too many wars to feel many emotions beside disinterest and vague pity for the soldiers. In the end, those calling the shots were at fault, not the ones holding the rifles, though the latter were the ones who always suffered the most. "And not a small one either. They must be really desperate if they keep firing those turrets even if it's suicidal."

"I never saw weapons like those," Ruby murmured, horrified by the bloody scenario.

"I did," replied Cinder, not at all put off by the sight. "Laser technology. Atlas entertained the idea of creating laser guns for a while, but eventually they decided that the highly volatile but destructive Dust ammunition would work better against both Grimm and human opponents. Their Atlasian Knights are still equipped with Light Dust guns that work more or less like laser guns, but as you can imagine Dust rounds are more effective."

"In addition to that, laser technology has always been extremely expensive," Salem continued effortlessly. Studying the world and how it evolved had always been one of her passions, and she could say she was an expert in many fields of science and art, and most of all history, of course. "Atlas preferred to continue to rely on Dust mined with the use of illegal slaves from the Schnee Dust Company, due to it being the cheapest option. While high-power laser could be more destructive than Dust, compacting the needed machines to create it into guns would cost so much it was much simpler to only use it in non-military appliances."

Weiss almost bristled when she so casually mentioned her family's crimes, but she couldn't find words to deny it – also because deep down she knew she was telling the truth, just like Blake had been at the beginning of the semester. She could only hope she'd be able to change it before it was too late.

"Though I wonder what's this 'Imperium'," commented Mercury, his arms crossed on his chest. He would usually find fights amusement, but this was so chaotic he could barely see what was happening, which made it a lot less amusing for the young assassin. "Maybe Salem's?"

"It is possible," she conceded with a nod. However, she wasn't completely convinced. There were also those 'they' that had been mentioned.

**Reports came of a vessel that came out of the warp, it crashed into the nearby planet before any of their ships could intercept it. Assuming it was just a lost vessel that made an emergency jump, a recover force was sent to investigate the wreckage, then the distress calls came in. Various reports of some kind of creatures attacking their various outposts, overrunning them. Slaughtering their defenders and easily overrunning the others. Then more reports of vessels coming out of the warp, crashing on many of their worlds and more reports of creatures. Cities were being overrun and soon they came...a massive force of…**

Yang growled in anger at not being able to see the mentioned creatures, knowing it might give them an idea of what the enemy was. "What the hell is going on?!"

"It seems another opponent has entered the fray," Cinder noted thoughtfully. Maybe the Imperium wasn't the only monarchy with expansionist goals? And where was Salem? Was she the Imperium's queen, or was she a third party? Were those 'creatures' the Grimm she commanded?

"I just hope we won't have to watch this war for too long," murmured Emerald. As loyal as she was to Cinder, she always had to look away at some of her more horrible crimes. Sometimes she envied Mercury for being able to be unaffected by whatever horrific action they had to take.

**"IT'S GOT ME!" a soldier shouted, snapping the commander out of his thoughts. He watched as the soldier was shooting frantically, others also shooting while another held onto him and before they knew it, the soldier was thrown over the wall by whatever that had got him. **

Ruby and Nora gasped horrified at seeing the soldier being caught by whatever was beyond the walls. "I really hope they make it through," Nora whimpered sadly, knowing that with how desperate they seemed, only a miracle could save them.

"I'm really hoping they don't," Neo replied mercilessly, shocking her teammates with her voice. What? In her dreams, she had a right to talk! "Think about it. Would it be better to die a quick death, or to be possibly tortured to death later?"

Despite her making a good point, the 'normal' students felt squeamish at her carelessness. The fact they didn't know whether that was the actual reason why she hoped they would die or not didn't reassure them either. They'd always known Emerald's team was pretty weird, but not _that_ weird…

**"Dammit! You!" he yelled, pointing at another soldier whom was tending to wounded. "Get up on that wall and keep those bastards at bay!" The soldier saluted and ran to join the wall defenders. This was the last stronghold, the final bastion of resistance against the Imperium of Mankind and their corpse Emperor. Thanks to its natural barriers, the only way in or out of the stronghold was the massive gates that were currently being besieged by these "Imperial" forces.**

"I highly doubt they will survive, then," Mercury stated bluntly, earning himself slight glares from the students. "Look, this might be a dream but it's not a movie – if that's their last stronghold in the entire planet, they have already lost. Even just because they don't have enough manpower to survive for long."

"As much as I hate to say it, Mercury has a point," Emerald admitted, grimacing as she did so.

"Hope is not lost yet" Blake proclaimed firmly. "Maybe they won't regain their planet, but they might be able to fight them off long enough to save themselves."

Emerald and Mercury exchanged a glance and shrugged in unison. "Dunno, they seemed pretty into fighting instead of running."

**"By the protector, look out!" someone yelled as something exploded, destroying one of the gun turrets. The Soldier shook his head as he looked over the wall, seeing creatures scaling the wall. The bone like faceplates forever burned into his memory as they dug their claws into the structure. He aimed and fired, striking one of the wolf like creatures in the eye and causing it to fall below, where others lay dead, their bodies slowly disintegrating away into a black mist. He looked at the destroyed gun turret and then out across the battlefield, where he could see "Imperial Guardsmen" making their way across the battlefield towards the city. **

"Grimm?!" Yang exclaimed, shocked. "But aren't we on another planet?!"

"Interesting," Salem mused, now sure that this third party had to be her, given the creatures that were fighting the rebels. "It said they came out of the 'warp', whatever that may be. Maybe it's a way to travel across the universe – or maybe Remnant itself is _inside_ this warp. What surprises me, though, is the fact these Grimm were on a 'vessel', which I assume stands for a spaceship – but how, if Dust stops working past the stratosphere? Did we find another way around that? Or do we not use Dust any longer?"

"Dust is Remnant's only fuel and energy source, Lady Salem," Weiss argued respectfully, using the correct title. "I don't think it's possible for humanity to replace it completely, not in your lifetime – and if you rule Remnant and a hundreds worlds like it said at the beginning, it means this must be a very recent future."

Salem didn't bother to correct her on her age. "Maybe Remnant still uses Dust, but if we were to find an alternative power source, it wouldn't take too long to reinvent much of the modern technologies." She smiled thinly. "I'm sure it happened when Dust was discovered too."

"But there have been millennia and millennia of difference between that age and ours! Science has gotten so far, and technology as well," the heiress held onto her argument, which would've been valid, hadn't she been discussing with someone with so much more experience, insight and knowledge than she did.

"But humanity adjusted quickly to having to rely on odd crystals embedded into the ground," she replied calmly. She was used to explaining why her plans worked in certain ways. Not all of her underlings were as sharp as Cinder or Watts when it came to understanding plans. Especially Tyrian.

Weiss was stumped for a second, and that was all it took for Ren to step in. "Why don't we see how this war ends before we start arguing on what could or could not have happened in our world's ancient past?"

Cinder was marginally impressed. She didn't think any of those students would be smart or wise enough to actually stop a discussion to focus on the more pressing matter, namely the huge war that had seemingly engulfed the entire planet of this 'Rebels'.

**These guardsmen, they were different. They didn't look like typical guardsmen, no, they were different in many ways. Their armor was vastly different from the others, looking like ancient knights of the Imperial Homeworld of Terra's ancient past. Some appeared to have what looked like ears or antlers jutting out from atop their helmeted heads. Abhumans? He didn't know nor cared, it was the fact that these guardsmen were fighting alongside these creatures was worrying. He watched as some were riding atop the wolf like creatures and firing at them from atop their steeds, some hanging onto them as they climbed the walls. **

"Are they _riding_ the creatures of _Grimm?!_" Ruby squeaked in clear horror and distress. The so-called 'abhumans' were obviously Faunus soldiers from Remnant, but what were they doing riding the embodiment of darkness and evil itself?!

"Maybe they found a way to control them," Salem replied mellowly. "After all, if some Semblances can take control of people's minds, why couldn't one use it to control the Grimm? Semblances don't follow any logical scheme anyway."

"She's right. It's probably just a Semblance," nodded Cinder, though she knew better. "That, or the Grimm stopped being…"

"Grimm?" Blake offered helpfully, glaring at the monsters. "Somehow, I doubt it."

**"Keep firing! Keep th-" the soldier didn't get to finish as head was blown clean off, his body falling off the wall and down to the ground below. The surviving soldiers shot back, trying to keep the creatures off the wall but they were too late, one made it over. It wasn't alone as its rider began firing at them, killing a few while the creature slashed others with its claws. It let out a blood curdling howl as more and more were climbing over that section of the wall. Some alone while others with riders. **

Weiss felt sick at the violence, with Ruby not too far behind. Others, like Yang and Pyrrha and Ren, were shocked at the sight of people working so well with the Grimm, using them as simple but excellent steeds.

_'That's odd,'_ Salem thought pensively. _'Despite my power, the level of control over the Grimm needed to allow a person to ride them is incredible – I surely wouldn't be able to do it on all those Grimm, for all those people. Not unless I were to become much stronger – maybe by using the Four Relics? If people are fighting alongside my Grimm, maybe I am the Queen of Remnant in this world…'_

"I really hope this never becomes reality," Blake gagged in disgust. "It's sick."

"Maybe, but after all, we're just seeing the war at the borders, not the peace this new world might hold inside," replied Cinder, not at all surprised by how the students were reacting.

"Aren't you disgusted by all this?" Yang asked aggressively, trying to vent part of her horror into anger.

"I do not find enjoyment in seeing such massacres, but I'm far too used to blood to be fazed," she answered smoothly. "Any experienced Hunter would be able to hide their horror, and I think I am more than a little used to it."

"How?"

Cinder's eyes darkened. "I'd rather not talk about it – people don't usually get used to seeing death in a nice way."

**"Take the gate controls! We need to allow the main force in!" yelled one of the riders as they fought the defenders back. The commander of the defenders yelled orders as he shot from below, striking one of the attackers from the side. Before he could fire again however, he watched as the wolf like creature covered the injured attacker. It kept him covered as another guardsman ran over to tend to his wounds. More and more creatures were making their way over the walls, from the wolf like ones to larger versions of the wolf ones to even other creatures. **

Salem was even more surprised. That couldn't possibly be instantaneous power, it had to be more of a permanent change. Instead of grabbing the Grimm's minds and forcing them to go against their nature every second, she had to have modified their nature itself into warriors and comrades to humans. Such a change was near impossible – she could infuse people with her power so that Grimm wouldn't attack them, but she never thought of changing the entirety of the Grimm!

Mostly because she'd never thought it'd be possible. After all, falling into a pool of Grimm, even with all her powers and her immortality, had permanently changed _her_, not the pool, so she'd always thought she couldn't manipulate the Grimm's true nature.

Maybe she did get the Relics to increase her powers, after all. It seemed something she might've done, had she conquered all of Remnants and many more worlds.

"Grimm… defending people?" Weiss said shakily, not really believing what she'd just seen.

"Well, if they can travel through space with stuff other than Dust, it's not so hard to believe that Grimm might be able to defend people," Neo shrugged, not really seeing why everyone was so shocked. Grimm weren't all that aggressive until negativity was around. Sure, they attacked, but they never looked for prey until they felt negativity. It wasn't so shocking to see them protecting someone who was helping them kill people.

**"Beringels coming up!" **

**Another creature made it over the wall, a hulking mass of a creature that roared as it grabbed one of the defenders from behind and threw her over the wall. The wall was lost. More and more of the defenders were retreating, some jumping down to the ground below despite the height in an attempt to get away from the creatures and the attackers. Others were being simply kicked off by the attackers and their monsters.**

"Are they suicidal?! Jumping off like that is almost sure to either kill them or at least strain their ankles!" Weiss exclaimed, shocked by their behaviour.

"Well, it's either jumping off and risking death or fighting the Grimm and dying for sure," Mercury replied with a shrug. "Besides, any Hunter would be able to do that."

"Yes, but these people seem to be already out of Aura," Pyrrha noted, worried. "Which means they are as vulnerable as any civilian!"

Mercury was nonplussed. "Hey, death by mauling compared to possible death by fall? Many would take their chance with the latter.

**"Open the gates! We have control of the wall!" no sooner did a voice say did the mechanized gates begin to open, they survivors could hear yelling from the otherside as more creatures and Guardsmen began pouring into the courtyard, fighting the defenders with the help of their monsters! The commander fired, killing a few of the attackers as a creature charged at him, its jaws open and claws outstretched as it lunged at him. The commander stayed calm, raising the lasgun up and letting it build up a bit before pulling the trigger and letting loose a plasma bolt that made contact with the face of the creature, killing it instantly. He fired at more of the creatures, rallying his forces to fight off the invaders!**

"Mmph," huffed Cinder. While sometimes people who were always obnoxiously calm annoyed her, especially if it was that bastard Watts, she admitted the commander of the rebels was good. Not just anyone could stare death in the face and put a bullet between its eyes.

"They already lost," Mercury scoffed lightly, disappointed by how short the battle had been. "The enemy controls the only way in or out, and the walls, and they already had the numeric advantage. Doesn't take a military genius to know they're screwed."

"No, but they can take down as many as they can!" Nora stated angrily, hoping the rebels would at least beat back for a while both Grimm and whatever psychopaths were riding them.

"Nora…" When she looked at him, her childhood friend just looked sad. "I think Mercury is right. The battle has been lost. Not even a miracle would save them now."

**"Don't let up! Send these bastards to void itself!" he yelled as his forces fought back, some able to bring down one of the large creatures known as a Beringel. Then he noticed something, he watched as one attacker quickly killed some of his men easily with his weapon, only to watch it change into a sword like weapon. He saw other guardsmen weapons doing the same thing, changing from rifles to either swords or maces. **

"Why are they surprised?" asked Ruby, trying to concentrate on the weapons instead of the mass killing going on in the dream around her. "Mechashift weaponry is pretty common – almost everyone has it!"

"Maybe on Remnant, but that's not Remnant," replied Emerald. "What puzzles me is why are they surprised _now_? If these Grimm and these people have been taking over planet after planet, why haven't they noticed that the people wielded mechashift weaponry?"

"The Grimm themselves are a good attack force – it is possible no one ever survived long enough to actually see the riders arrive," Salem commented carelessly, still thinking on how she could've changed the Grimm so much all by herself.

"That's a scary thought…" murmured Ruby. "The Grimm being so many and so strong the rest of the army never even had the time to arrive… I really hope this never happens in our world."

"Of course it won't, you dolt," retorted Weiss, using her 'insults' to distract herself like Ruby had done with the weapons. "This is all just a dream."

**He noticed another attacker was dressed a bit differently than the others, wearing a different kind of armor. While dressed in similar metallic armor, this one had a metal mask on that looked like the face mask of one of the creatures. He fired at the attacker, only to see for a brief moment what looked a bluish field that covered the body of the attacker, easily deflecting the the bolt of plasma. Before he could fire again, a loud thunderous horn was heard, causing all the attackers and creatures to quickly back away towards the opened gates. The surviving defenders looked at them, ready to continue fighting if need be but were confused by the actions of their attackers. But they soon realized why. Why they stopped fighting.**

"Welp, boss area time," Mercury scoffed casually, as if comparing videogames to bloody warfare were to be perfectly normal. In his defence it could be said that it did look like the boss was coming out. In his offence it could be said he could've very well kept his mouth shut.

"More like the herald or the commander of the besiegers," Emerald rebutted, as always irritated by the assassin's comments. It wasn't completely his fault – it was just that everything that define him made her angry, including his skill in combat. Even when he was silent or serious, she felt annoyed at him.

Mercury huffed at her logic. "Always ruining my jokes, Em. It seriously looks like the boss's about to enter the fray. Just chill and stop being such a stick-in-the-mud."

A scathing retort was on the tip of her tongue, but a sharp glance from Cinder froze her before she could throw it at the assassin. In the end, it wasn't worth causing her boss's ire.

**An extremely loud roar echoed from outside the gates, the "guardsmen" moved out of the way as something massive made its way inside. A towering monstrous creature slowly walked in, resembling an ancient long dead creature that the commander had seen in old pictures of Terra's past. A Tyrannosaurus rex from what he remembered but this...this monster looked wrong. Bone like spikes ran down its back, ending on a razor sharp tail, its massive three toed clawed feet caused small cracks to form on the ground with every step. Its snarled at them all, showing off its sharp teeth as its glowing orange eyes scanned around. The rider upon its back simply patted the side of its head and the monster calmed itself. **

Everyone's jaw dropped, even Salem's. While she'd seen Tyrant Rex before, they were extremely rare since they were so powerful. The pools of darkness didn't exactly pour out _any_ kind of Grimm at all times. It was like using energy and having to wait until that energy came back. Beowolves could be created in packs without problem, Ursai weren't much worse, even Beringels didn't really exhaust the pools. The Wyvern… it had taken two months before a single other Grimm had been formed, and only because she'd been the one to order it to. Usually, powerful Grimm like those were created every now and then, and often remained hidden in the world for a long time before coming into the spotlight.

The Tyrant Rex had been powerful, but eventually it was just another tank. She had dropped the idea of creating an army of those in favour of generating Grimm with different abilities or powers and up until then, she'd never regretted that decision. Who knew how many other monsters she would see in that dream.

"W-What is that?" Pyrrha asked shakily, the first to shake off the horror and the fear.

Cinder narrowed her eyes. "A Grimm, obviously, thought not one I've ever seen. It seems to be very strong, but it might have-"

"It doesn't have any special ability," Salem cut in firmly. "That's a Tyrant Rex, a Grimm dinosaur. The last known individual was slain over seven hundreds years ago, but it's quite possible for one to have reappear in recent times – after all, the Grimmlands are so vast it's impossible to know exactly what there is or there isn't in there."

"Is it strong?"

"Quite so, Young Rose, but fortunately for you far from invincible. It's a hulking mass of ferocity and power, but lacking any kind of special ability. Nonetheless, it's a formidable foe and… I dare say… the perfect weapon to breach a besieged city."

**"N-no way…"**

**"It can't be…**

**"Oh gods, we are forsaken.."**

"Well, they're not exactly wrong," winced Mercury, feeling slight pity for those soldiers. No one liked having such a beast pop up after a long and exhausting siege. "Boss area indeed…"

**Various voices reacted to the who was Riding the monster. The commander gulped as he watched the creature lower itself down so that its rider could step down. The Rider towered over the other attackers, cladded in heavy power armor with a cloak that waved faintly as the figure walked over to the commander, each step heavy as he did. **

"Either this guy kills them all, or he's gonna offer them survival in exchange of their immediate surrender," noted the very same grey-haired assassin. "Not many other reasons why he would've stopped his army just when he was about to win, honestly."

"Am I the only one scared by that guy?" Nora asked, fear evident in her voice.

"I think we're all scared, Nora," Ren replied, even quieter than normal. "Let's just remember this is all a dream – nothing can actually harm us here."

"No – but it can and probably will harm them," Blake counter uneasily, pointing at the soldiers. "And Lord Khor said this is from another universe, which means it might be real for them…"

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Salem reassured everyone, though in all honesty she really wanted for that to happen – it'd mean she'd won her war. Who cared about other worlds when she could rule Remnant and show a metaphorical middle fingers to the Gods?

**"You fought well." The figure told him as it walked towards, a soldier tried to attack only to be effortlessly knocked away by the armored giant.**

The students winced at the backhand. He hadn't even _tried_ to put strength into the hit. Had he actually hit the soldier, the poor guy would've probably died on impact with the ground or something…

**"Your soldiers are fearless, you should feel proud of that fact." he continued, his voice calm and deep. It was a voice that demand compliance and obedience. "Your armies proved far more resistance than the Imperium let on, you even gave the Grimm here trouble." he gestured to the creatures they stayed put. "But here you are, your armies destroyed. Most of Your planets now under the banner of my mother's kingdom." he finished as he stood before the commander. The commander had to look up at behemoth of a man. Or well a God-warrior. For standing before him was a Primaris Marine, a super soldier and the pinnacle of Human evolution. Bred and trained to be the ultimate soldiers. Taught to never retreat. Never to surrender. They were perfect warriors. They knew only war. It was their purpose.**

This time the students didn't wince, they straight-out shivered as if caught in a cold Atlasian winter breeze. "That's not intimidating at all…" Yang tried to be sarcastic, but she only managed a small amount of snark in her words.

"Mmh, very advanced eugenics, it would seem…" She wondered if Watts had had a hand in that, or if she'd done it all by herself. "Which means this must be fairly far in the future, as it would take generations to make such differences in the genes of people. Unless… they aren't selectively bred but modified genetically."

Then a thought struck her. "Wait, 'my mother's kingdom'? That man is my son?"

Her underlings winced, knowing how she actually looked out of the dream, and didn't say anything. They really didn't think a millennia-old Grimm woman would be able to have children.

"Well, it's possible, right?" Ruby offered with an awkward look. "If you were to marry someone really really big…"

Salem, for the first time in centuries, rolled her eyes at the girl's naivety. That wasn't exactly the point. Though if he really was her son, it meant she would later marry… and she had no idea who the lucky or unlucky man would be.

**His armor was colored black and red, resembling the creatures of Grimm. His face hidden by the bone white colored helmet, red markings etched into it in order to resembling that of the creature he rode on top of. It looked as if it was molded to look like the creature as well. The optics of his helmet glowed that frightening orange, similar to the creatures eyes.**

"Okay, now that's really creepy," admitted Weiss, more than a little scared of the man's armour. "First we see Grimm fighting with people, then people riding them, then this man riding a- a- a Tyrant Rex, and now his armour is built to make him look like a Grimm? And who's the mother he's talking of? The Queen of the Grimm?"

Cinder and her team exchanged a glance before looking at Salem, who didn't have any visible reaction. However, inside she was slightly smirking. While the Grimm weren't really nice to look at, they'd been her only constant servants thorough all the millennia she spent fighting. She even made sure to keep Vlad safe, as the Beowolf had been with her since the very beginning and was now so powerful it could probably fight a Goliath on even footing.

"Well, I guess it fits with the rest of the army, and it suits him," Pyrrha commented, though she too disliked the armour, and the man, and the army itself.

**"So I ask you this, Will you surrender to a superior force or die trying to fight for a lost cause? The choice is yours."**

**The choice was clear to him. His army was on its last leg, this stronghold held the last of them. He looked at them all, some were wounded, barely clinging to their lasguns while others lay dead or wounded. He looked at the Primaris Marine, dropping his plasma pistol and bowed to his knees. "I surrender." He simply stated. **

"Mmh. He actually gave him a choice. I wasn't expecting that. I can say I'm surprised," admitted Mercury, slightly put off by the Grimm commander's behaviour. Especially since he had to be working for Salem, who wasn't known for being merciful to her enemies.

"Well, at least he's not a complete and jerky monster!" Nora exclaimed, trying to bring the morale back up, but unfortunately not succeeding in the slightest. Dejected, she slumped back down, so very tired of that world full of wars and death.

"Interesting. Now let's see if he respects that surrender or if he orders his army to kill them," commented Cinder, though she wasn't sure he would do it. "On the other hand, they were already winning – it'd be pointless to attack them now and not earlier."

**"Raise the flags of your queen!" The primaris marine order as the flags of the rebels were cast aside and another flag took its place. The guardsmen saluted the flag by placing their fists up to their chests. **

**"Glory to her Majesty, Queen Salem!" they yelled in unison. "Glory to the sons of Salem!"**

**The Primaris Marine walked away from the commander as the Remnant Guard began to tend the wounded rebels and round up prisoners. The Royal Symbol of Salem fully displayed on his cloak, showing that he was a Son of Salem. **

Everyone turned to look at her, and she just shrugged. "No, I do not have an army of Grimm and Grimm Riders, nor am I looking to conquer other worlds, nor am I able to make Grimm turn into trainable animals or efficient soldiers," she answered their unspoken questions, skirting around the truth. "And besides, it could very well be someone with my name – maybe one of my descendants. I doubt I would be able to conquer Remnant and then a hundred worlds all in my lifetime. Though I do have a symbol, just like all of you, but I do not like to showcase it around."

They had to accept her words because honestly, they made sense, and none of them knew any better. Though her underlings were thoroughly impressed and intimidated by that knowledge. And reassured that they had chosen the winning party by siding with her and the Grimm, despite everything.

"Well, at least he didn't order anyone to be killed," noted Ruby, a note of hope in her voice. "The opposite, in fact! They went to help the rebels as soon as the fighting was over!"

"That is definitely a point in their favour," nodded Weiss, before her expression darkened. "Which puts them one to a million. Still not among my favourite people."

**"My lord, you have an incoming transmission, it is lord Nokris." a Remnant guard informed him, he looked down at the faunus girl as she held a communication. Her helmet held to her side. She placed the communicator on the ground as a hologram of another helmeted Primaris Marine formed infront of him. The faunus bowed as Nokris gestured her to leave. **

**"Malach, our mother wishes to know the status of your mission and your wellbeing along with the others." he told Malach.**

Reluctantly, Blake acknowledged that this Salem at least cared for her army, or at least her children. Adam hadn't often asked such questions about their fellow White Fang members during some of the more dangerous missions. While it wasn't a redeeming quality, it was at least a quality.

**"It's nice to see you as well brother. The mission is complete, the last of rebels have surrendered and our forces will begin gathering all surviving Grimm soon." he explained to his "brother." While not related by blood, they were brothers still by the experiences and hardships they endured. And their history. All those in the "Sons of Salem" Primaris marine chapter were brothers, for they all shared a single mother. Salem. "The Young blood are currently establishing bases for the Imperium's forces when they arrive. When they do, we shall make our leave back home to Remnant. Let our mother know that her flags fly all over this system and many have bowed to her will." He concluded as Nokris simply nods. The transmission cuts off as Malach walks away, his monstrous mount lowers itself to allow him to climb back on. **

"I'm still not over the fact the guy's riding a gigantic dinosaur Grimm like it's a docile pet," muttered Nora. While she too sometimes rode Grimm, it was in a far different way – it was to tire them out or kill them outright, not just to use them as transport.

"Well, given how this has been going on, I think we'll soon see more battles," commented Mercury, not at all fazed by that. True, duels were more entertaining that all-out battles, but still even wars held some sort of charm.

"Interesting, so I do _not_ have a husband in the future," Salem murmured to herself, surprised to feel relief instead of disappointment. She hadn't thought about having a man or woman by her side in a _long long_ time, and given how her last relationship ended with her incinerating her husband, she wasn't keen on finding another significant other.

"So these 'Sons of Salem' are just a military group," noted Ren.

"Yes, but one united by their time on the battlefield," Pyrrha amended his statement, narrowing her eyes. "Though it seems this 'Imperium' they mentioned is actually an ally of… well, the Sons of Salem."

"Or maybe it was conquered itself and is now just a department of Lady Salem's army," Neo replied in a bored tone. "We'll never know."

**"My lord, what should we do about the other holdouts?" another guard asked. Malach looked down at her from his grimm mount and simply laughed within his helmet. She looked confused at this but composed herself as he spoke. **

**"Any who resist my Mother's will are to be dealt with understand?" she nodded at him. "Exterminate them as you would an insect." he signal his grimm to walk forward as other Grimm followed closely. The remnant guards watched as Malach rode away; Malach "The Siege Breaker", the ninth born of Salem.**

"Well, at least he's not some weak-ass commander who doesn't have the guts to kill if people resist," commented Neo. "That would've been very disappointing after watching everything he did."

Yang bristled at that, alongside every other student. She, though, frowned as she looked at the girl more closely… she really reminded her of someone… but who?

"Well, with a mount like that, it's not so hard to win sieges," Mercury spoke up without a care in the world, as if Neo hadn't just said she would've liked to see people die. "He didn't even fight… maybe his title is more in convincing people to surrender than in killing them?"

_'Now that'd be so disappointing,'_ Neo scoffed in her mind, but kept silent. She didn't want to blow her cover, even if it was all a weird dream. Who knew what was actually happening…

**-rebel system, another "liberated" planet-**

**"You must be cleansed. This planet must be cleansed." Remnant guard walked about, tanks strapped to their backs as a tube connected to them led to a flamethrower like weapon. They stood guard as Grimm walked by, a faint orange glow could be seen in the distance. "Cleanse with fire, it can cleanse even the most vile of sins." a distorted Voice said calmly. The remnant guards looked at who was speaking, his cloak displaying the royal symbol of Queen Salem as he stood in front of a large fire, serpent like Grimm slept around it for warmth. The fire reflected off his orange optics, his helmet was painted and fashioned in a way to resemble a Manticore. He extended his massive gauntlet, fire erupting from under the palm as it fed the fire before him more.**

_'I'm calling it now, that guy's some trans version of Cinder,'_ thought Mercury, hiding a grimace. He already had enough of pyromaniacs. One fire bitch was enough, he didn't need a fire bastard.

"I like him," Cinder admitted with a shrug. "He really knows his stuff about fire." As if to complete her words, she created a small fireball on her hand. "And I can respect that."

"Did you forget he's burning down a whole planet?" Weiss snapped at her, as if her cold words could somehow extinguish the flames all around them, created by the dream.

"Weiss, maybe that's how they handle stress?" Ruby offered weakly, but even she wasn't so sure. "Maybe they make comments like those to hide the fact they're scared or…"

"I'm not _scared_," Cinder remarked scathingly, glaring at the now cowering girl. "I just saw too much of this world's dark side to be impressed by mere wars."

"Enough." A single, authoritative word from Salem was enough to stop all bickering. "We are not here to snap at each other. I, for one, am finding myself incredibly interested, so be silent until the dream ends…" _'If it will ever end,'_ she added in her mind.

**"Lord Onyx, an urgent transmission for you." A Remnant guarded informed the giant as he looked away from the fire. The Remnant guard placed the device in Onyx's massive hand, a holographic image immediately formed. It was Malach, his younger brother. **

**"Malach." he said as the helmeted face of his brother looked up at him.**

**"Ah Onyx, I see you're being well you." Malached said, his attempt at humor didn't faze Onyx. **

**"What do you want little brother."**

"Jeez, someone's not the mood right now, huh?" Mercury commented sarcastically.

"Humour is not always funny, especially yours, Mercury," Emerald snapped at him, irritated by his umpteenth comment. "So why don't you keep your mouth shut?!"

"Well, not my fault if I'm the only one who has something to say," he shot back cheekily, grinning when she began to fume in anger. It was really too easy.

"Mercury, Emerald, stop arguing like five years old children," Cinder sighed, for once not angry but just exasperated.

"Yes ma'am."

"Sure."

**"Our eldest brother wants to know how you're mission went and mother wishes to know if you are well." **

**"My mission was a success, the young blood," gesturing to the other Primaris marines that stood nearby, ordering the Remnant guard. They too were giants among men, their armor painted in the same way as Onyx's and Malachs, save for them not wearing cloaks. No, they wore the royal Symbol of their mother upon their pauldron. They too were the sons of salem. "and the Remnant guard have cleansed this planet of the sins that tainted these people." Onyx looked towards the orange glow, watching as a massive city burned in the distance, illuminating the surrounding area as if it was day.**

_'Now that's some good fireworks,' _Cinder inwardly complimented Onyx's work, though outwardly she was completely impassive.

"I guess this one is less understanding than the other…" noted Emerald, at least the other had given them a chance at surviving. This one was just burning everything and everyone around him indiscriminately.

"Or just has different methods," Salem replied evenly. "Maybe he just waits for them to surrender instead of giving them the option outright."

"Still makes him much less merciful," Blake retorted shakily. She already didn't like wars, but seeing an entire city set on fire was something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.

**"Alright then, we have been called home, our mission is done here." Malach stated before the communicator shut off.**

**"Awaken my beast, we leave this cleansed planet." **

"Now let's see what kind of monstrous mount he will have instead…" muttered Yang. "I really hope none of those Grimm actually exist in our world…"

Salem rose an eyebrow. The blonde girl had a point. Maybe she should give those kind of creatures another chance… then she shook her head. Those were students – of course they'd be impressed by those kinds of Grimm. Professional Hunters, though, would just kill them without batting an eyelid.

**The words awakened a massively sized slumber grimm, it moved towards its master, revealing to all a Manticore Alpha. It dwarfed the other Manticores and even caused some to go into a frenzy as it let out a mighty roar as fire escaped from its mouth. The Remnant guard backed away from it, Onyx however was not fazed by its actions. It lowered its head, giving Onyx a chance to gently pet it before walking to its side and mounting it. Upon doing so, the metallic armor it was wearing hummed to life, a dark purple glow emitted from parts of it as the large flamer weapons on with side of its face hummed to life. **

"Okay, that is both cool and terrifying," Yang admitted, barely keeping the shaking out of her voice. "The Grimm is _huge_! What kind is that?"

"A Manticore, Alpha or older," Salem replied pensively, looking at the creature. While it was strong, it was far from the most powerful… her 'sons' probably relied more on their skill than their mounts. Those were probably just for show or in extreme cases. "It is able to shoot fire, as you've seen. It can also intimidate other kinds of Grimm, most often Sphinxes, to form a pack – and that's the normal kind. An Alpha is even bigger and stronger."

"I've read their name somewhere, they should be mostly found in Atlas… which makes no sense if they spit fire!" exclaimed Weiss, recalling reading that name on a book back at the Schnee mansion.

"They are Grimm – they don't have any kind of specific habitat. They just wandered wherever they want." What Salem didn't add was that extreme temperatures could still freeze the Grimm solid, effectively killing them. They'd find out once they graduated… probably.

**"Soldiers of The Remnant guard! Young blood, we leave this planet and we return home! We have cleansed it of sin!" this caused the soldiers to yell in victory as the "Sons of Salem" Marines simply looked upon their elder brother. Onyx signaled his forces to begin their trek towards the landing point as thunderhawk gunships flew in the sky to take them aboard their warships that orbited the planet.**

**For this planet had been cleansed by the fires of Onyx, "The Fire lord", third born of Salem.**

"I guess this one was a bit more focused on destroying everything," Neo snarked, enjoying the looks of annoyance the others sent her way.

Salem narrowed her eyes, frowning at the clear lack of respect towards one of her 'sons'. However, the observation seemed correct.

**-rebel system, other rebel planet-**

**Two Ursa fought over a dead rebels body as Remnant guard scoured over a battlefield, the battle won in their favor. One noticed a rebel trying to crawl away. "There, Lord Ares was correct about some being alive." The Bull faunus stated as she kicked the rebel down, the barrel of her weapon pressed against the back of his head. He pleaded but it fell on deaf ears as she pulled the trigger. A distant explosion pulled her attention away from the body, looking towards the ruined stronghold where it originated from. **

Ruby and Weiss felt sick again. "And this one instead hunts down the survivors," Cinder remarked flatly, not willing to anger Salem even though the words slipped out almost unconsciously.

"Fear tactics, maybe, so other rebels wouldn't even think of resisting?" offered Emerald, sickened by the scene but holding on.

"It is possible," conceded Salem, not at all fazed by her 'son's apparent cruelty nor by the discussion the other dreamers were having. She wasn't one to feel insulted easily, after all, and it would be stupid to feel insulted on her son's stead. So she just let it go.

**"Lord Ares and the other Sons are really giving it to them." her companion stated as A beowolf walked next to her. She placed her hand on top of its head as they got back to their task. Various shots could be heard as hundreds of Remnant guards scoured the battlefield for survivors, the Grimm picking off any as well, for this was their task given to them by Lord Ares. **

**-in the stronghold-**

**"Dammit! What the hell are these things!" A rebel yelled as an Ursa charged at him, only for it to be gunned down by the gatling lasers of the sole remaining mechsuit they had left. They were pushed back by these creatures and their masters, these marines. **

"Again, I am surprised they don't know what the Grimm are," said Weiss, trying to keep her mind off the carnage.

"Maybe they just never left survivors," Pyrrha stated, darkening the atmosphere around the students.

**"Sir! We-" the rebel didn't get to finish as a bolter round literally blew him into pieces, leaving a bloody mess of parts. "Sons of Salem" marines moved up, the giant warriors shrugging off the rounds that the rebels fired as if they were nothing but pebbles. Their Ursa ran up ahead, trying to overcome the defenses only to be gunned down by the mechsuit. The Rebels clung to that hope, that hope they would survive this and counter their attackers but that hope was dashed as the Sons of Salem kept advancing. **

**They were stunned as one slowly walked forward, the others stopping their march as this single marine stepped forward. This Marine was different, he was bigger than the other marines around him. A good two feet taller than the others. Two massive chainsaw axes held in both hands, the razor sharp teeth of the axes dripping with blood as the defenders could feel the aura of dread coming from the single massive marine. His helmet painted and fashioned in a way to resemble the Ursa. His cloak flapped in the wind as he stepped forward. But what drew some of their attention was his exposed arms, unlike the others, his arms were exposed. Scars and wounds riddle the purple veined deathly white skin of the massive marine's arms.**

The students recoiled at the inhuman skin colour. "Is that an alien?" wondered Nora, disgusted and horrified.

"More probably a mutated human," Ren corrected her, remembering what had been said about the Primaris Marines.

Salem wasn't listening. So maybe they _were_ her actual sons. Though, the four daughters she had held none of her Grimm appearance, so why did these do? Maybe they had bathed in the Grimm pools themselves? How had they survived, if that had been the case?

**Then they saw something else that utterly terrified them, walking up from behind the marine was a massive Ursa Alpha. It dwarfed the Ursa Majors around it. Adorned in metallic armor with a single twin barreled gatling laser mounted on its back, the creature growled, awaiting its master's orders.**

**"You will all die here," The massive marine spoke, pointing a claw at them. "You make a mockery of this battle and my warriors by hiding behind your machine and your walls. I shall show you what a true warrior looks like!" he roared as he charged, the other marines resuming their fire as they charged ahead. Some wielding their chainswords, chainsaw like swords that roared to life. The rebels fired, fired all they had only for it be in vain as the massive marine stomped his way towards, lunging at the mechsuit and sinking his chainsaw axes into it. Sparks flew as the teeth began to eat through the armor plating of the suit, eventually slicing the pilot inside. The Rebels were ripped apart, brutally slain by the Sons of Salem and Ursa. it was nothing short of a massacre. **

**Within Minutes, dozens of bodies lay strung about as the marines ensured none survived. Salem's flag was soon placed high above the stronghold, signaling this planet was taken. **

**"Lord Ares!" a voice yelled out, the massive marine turned to see a Remnant guard riding upon a Beowolf ride up to them. "A message from Lord Nokris." he informed the massive marine as he patted the head of his Ursa Alpha. The Remnant guarded handed the communication device to a marine before riding off. Nokris eventually appeared upon the hologram, looking up at his brother. **

**"Ares, i see that your mission was also a success. How many rebels survived this final battle?"**

"More like a bloody slaughter," Blake corrected, looking sick herself. Ruby and Weiss were trying to hold in their dinner.

Salem frowned. Why had the first one given them the option of surrender, and the other two instead chosen to just kill everyone? Weren't they under specific orders? Did she leave them free reign on what to do and how to do it? That sounded impossible… but she had no other explanation.

**"None did, my soldiers are ensuring even the wounded are slain. They have made a mockery of this battle by not fighting head on, but instead hid behind the walls of their fortress!" he yelled as Nokris stared at him. Nokris knew it was fruitless to argue with his brother, even if he was in the wrong. **

**"When you are finished there, return home. The Imperium's dogs can have the scraps. Mother wishes for her sons and her armies returned home." Nokris ordered as the communicator shut off. Ares looked up at the sky as a massive shadow blanked the land. His massive warship hovered above, awaiting the return of Ares, "The War titan", Fourth born of Salem. **

**"Let us return home brothers." he stated as they made way to leave the former fortress, now little more than a giant tomb for its former defenders. **

**The Rebels were able to drive off the Imperium for 10 years…. It only took the Sons of Salem and Remnant guard six months to take back the entire system.**

"Are they working as mercenaries for this 'Imperium'?" wondered Mercury, seeing as they didn't like the Imperials but yet allowed them to take the planet they had just bloodily conquered. "Or are they reluctant allies? It seems like Salem's is the strongest party here, so why not just destroy the Imperium itself and absorb it in her reign?"

"Maybe she just wasn't interested in those planets and just wanted them destroyed because they were useless," Cinder replied thoughtfully. "Or maybe they didn't kill and destroy everyone and everything, but only those who we saw. I can't say for sure."

"Let's hope we won't see any more battles scenes… I don't feel so good…" moaned Ruby.

**-Remnant, Sepia system; Named after one of Salem's daughters-**

Salem scowled at the reminder, but kept silent. She'd rather wait and see instead of blow up.

**"Oh please, do you really think Queen Salem would allow any of the Outsiders near our home planet? You Know Remnant is only for those born in this sector of the Imperium." A lion faunus stated as she ate her lunch with another girl. Both were dressed in an academy uniform belonging to their academy. The uniform was standard for those who attended The Fall academy, named after its founder, Cinder Fall. **

Everyone turned to Cinder. Salem hummed. Making her the founder would've been… honestly stupid. The woman was incredibly skilled in combat and in planning, but she held no patience with people, was arrogant and self-centred. All in all, definitely far from a good choice.

"I have no idea what this dream is going on about," Cinder admitted frankly. She wouldn't even _like_ being a Headmistress. From what she saw of Ozpin, it was a really stressful and thankless job, one she'd rather avoid if possible.

"Congratulations for your promotion?" Emerald offered awkwardly, earning herself a deadpan from the woman.

**"Well that's what I heard!" the other stated as she looked up at the sky from where they sat. A massive "Sons of Salem" Warship flew overhead, casting a massive shadow over the city as it was followed by a few standard Remnant guard warships that were dwarfed in comparison to the Sons of Salem ship. They slowly hovered away, heading towards another direction the girl did not care for. She simply looked at one of the many ships that safeguarded their sector of space. "Its just, what if she does? What if the Imperium tries to instill some governor or something that would have more power than the queen?" **

**"As if! Do you really think her sons would allow that?" she looked at her friend as she finished her meal. "The first ten would never allow her to be dethroned or have someone else try to rule over us."**

**"Plus we would fight back, an entire system going to war against a false ruler. The Remnant Guard, the Sons of Salem, the first 10 and even us regular people would rather die than let some Outsider dethrone our Queen! Billions upon billions of people and faunus from all across the planets she rules, would fight back to ensure her rule stays." The Lion faunus stated proudly. **

**"Plus it would be an affront to the first born." her friend stated, causing the Faunus to look at her. She calmed down when hearing that,**

"Who's the first born?"

"We don't know yet, you dolt," Weiss snapped before sighing and calming herself down. "I apologize, this whole dream looks more like a nightmare to me. I just want it to end…"

"Well, if it helps, I don't have any children," said Salem. _'Any more,'_ she bitterly added in her mind, remembering the four beautiful girls she once had… the four daughters killed by her first actual fight with Ozpin. She would never forget, and she would absolutely never forgive him, or the Gods, for what had happened. It was her reason to live.

**"Yeah, it would be spitting on his sacrifice…" **

**"...He who gave his life to ensure our Queen, his "mother", lived and brought upon our Golden age."**

**"Mauve, do you ever wonder what the first Born was like? I heard he was kind and that his eyes were beautiful and calming." The human girl asked the faunus as she laid back onto the grass.**

"Wow, so quite the difference from Mr 'dark and imposing', or Mr 'flame and ruin', or Mr 'death and destruction'," Yang snarked angrily, not really believing that _any_ of those warriors would be anything but monsters in human skin. And not even so human given how Ares's looked like.

Salem growled under her breath, but contained her anger. It would be pointless to snap at a girl as young as her – she was just talking about things she couldn't understand, and using that sarcasm to hide her fear underneath. Maybe she would learn her lesson over time, but that wasn't her job, it was the girl's teachers'.

"It's sad to say I'm surprised by the fact a human and a Faunus are talking so easily to one another. Aside from a few people, most preferred to stick with the respective race," Blake noted sadly, knowing that in their Remnant it would be hard to see something like that. "Though I'm surprised that in a world where the Grimm are welcome, there is such peace and acceptance…"

"Well, it's always being under the same banner, isn't it?" Emerald shrugged at her statement. Light or darkness it didn't really made much of a difference – it was all about how you treated your allies… and your enemies. If everyone was your ally, there was no need to treat them poorly… unless said ally was Mercury, of course. Then she would understand any kind of hostility towards him.

**"I mean, we did learn about him and the others in school or did you forget about that Maze?" Mauve asked her friend, looking at her.**

**"I know! But there is more to history than what we read in books. For instance, did you know that he led the charge that freed her majesty when she was taken by forces of the four ancient Kingdoms?" Mauved ears perked about when hearing that.**

"I'm guessing those four 'ancient' Kingdoms are the ones we currently live in," Ren hypothesised, and rightly so. "Just how much time has passed if we are ancient history?"

"Probably centuries," guessed Salem, earning herself many looks. She rolled her eyes again. "As I said, this Queen might be someone with my name, or my descendant." Again, she wasn't technically lying. Herself _was_ someone with her name.

"So it might be someone existing now… but wait, if the Queen was saved in ancient history, how comes she's still alive now, since she asked how the mission was going she has to be alive!" Weiss's observation made everyone look at Salem in question.

She inwardly huffed at having become the source of mind-clearings and information for everyone. "It's not so impossible. Maybe, to enforce my power as Queen, or future queen, I named my heir the same as me, and so on, to give the false conception of me being eternal." She shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time a Kingdom has done so, though the last one has ceased to exist centuries ago. It's ancient history… not unlike ours will be in the future."

"I guess it does make sense…" No one was really convinced, Weiss least of all, but it wasn't like she could really be immortal, so they had to accept whatever explanation she could give.

**"No, i didn't!"**

**"Yep! Learned that from an old Journal that was found recently, belonged to some old Remnant guard. This was only a bit after the Imperium found our sector." Mauve was surprised by this, why didn't they teach this in Academy!**

**"Also there is another tidbit, Salem wasn't his mother."**

**"Well yeah, we all know that while the Sons of Salem are named as such, they aren't really related to her by blood. I mean, well there is that other thing that connects them to her but still!"**

**"True, the first ten are kinda her children since she raised them but the first born was still related to her." Maze informed, Mauve looked confused at her. Yes, the Sons of Salem were not really her sons but she still treated them as such. She mourned for any Son of Salem that died while fighting on far off worlds. Even held month long mournings for anyone of them that died.**

"If she loves them so much she shouldn't send them to fight wars on unknown, faraway planets full of people who did nothing to earn death," Weiss snapped with a glare.

Salem composed herself for a second under the nervous glances of her underlings, before she replied evenly. "Following that same line of thought, there shouldn't be a single Hunter in the entirety of Remnant, because their parents should've prevented them from fighting the Grimm or criminals. Maybe those planets aren't as innocent as you think, and had to be dealt with."

"Hunters are different – the Grimm always attack first and we have to defend ourselves!" protested Yang.

"Oh, really? If that were to be true, then you'd be right – but most Hunters perish on… how do you call them? Oh, yes… 'Search and Destroy' missions into the Grimmlands, where no human is in danger. Most of those Grimm have never even _seen_ a human until the moment the Hunters arrived." Salem scoffed. "Grimm may be mindless beasts, but if there is no human in a radius of miles and miles, why send people to kill Grimm who aren't likely to ever attack? Especially when others will just take their place?"

"Because if they remove those Grimm, there'll be less to attack villages when or if a tragedy strikes and negativity is abound," Weiss snapped back, just as cold.

"Then, with the same mindset, they will fight on those planets to prevent those 'rebels' from ever invading Remnant. Offence is the best defence, isn't that what most Hunters play on while fighting?" Salem's words silenced everyone.

Not that they agreed with her. Grimm and human beings couldn't be considered the same, not now not ever. However, arguing with her about it seemed to be completely pointless, so they just let it go.

**"So how was he actually related to her?"**

**"Well, he was actually a descendant of one of her daughters."**

**"What!? You're lying! All her daughters died when they were killed by that man!" Mauve rebuked, knowing that they were taught that her Majesty's daughters were killed by the Wizard.**

**"Its true! My brother, he's one of the guards that guard the inside of the First Born's Mausoleum, he says there is a plaque near the entrance to his tomb." Mauve looked away from her friend in disbelief, towards the massive statue that stood tall 900 feet tall, overlooking the City and Salem's castle. It was that of the first Born, wearing his royal Sons of Salem armor, holding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. He was the Guardian of the land of darkness and the Kingdom of Salem that resided within it. A massive King Taijitu rests near the base of the statue, one that is said to be one of the largest Grimm in history. Its said that the massive Grimm was the first born's trusted mount and protector. It slumbers now, only to awaken if the Land of Darkness comes under threat.**

"Well, that has to be one massive Taijitsu if it's ranked as one of the biggest Grimm ever," noted Mercury.

Salem observed it carefully, but she couldn't remember ever creating one such Grimm. Maybe she had created it just for this 'first born'. It had to have taken a lot of power from her… why would she waste it for a sleeping guardian?

Meanwhile, the Beacon students peered at the statue, but it was too vague to actually make out who was represented. They weren't too sad about it though.

**"What does it say?"**

"Sweet, looks like we're gonna know the name of the one who helped the Grimm conquer the world," Yang commented, sarcasm dripping from every word.

**Maze cleared her throat, "Here lies Jaune "Alexandros" Arc, The First born of Salem and the direct Descendant of her Majesty's daughter; Her Royal highness, Catalina! The Eldest of Salem's daughters."**

Deafening silence took over the group. Apart from Salem, everyone knew that name. Well, Cinder and her group never really interacted with him but they knew him. Team RWBY and -NPR instead were very familiar with the name, and the person it belonged to.

"Wait a second… Jaune's the descendant of that sort-of Queen of the Grimm!?" Yang exclaimed, torn between being shocked, in denial at their kind and goofy friend helping such a vile being, and anger for that very same reason.

"Why would he help the Grimm?!" shouted Nora. "That'd never happen!"

"Nora's right," Ren agreed, eyes of steel, protecting his brother in all but blood. "Jaune would never do anything evil."

"The dunce just doesn't have it in him," nodded Weiss. As much as she hated his courtship, which had mysteriously ended after the dance, she didn't hate the one who performed said courtship. Did he annoy the hell out of her? Yes. But, he was still a friend, even if not a close one.

"Jaune would never do something like that!" exclaimed Ruby without an ounce of doubt in her voice, fully certain that her first friend in Beacon would never perform any evil act.

"Never," Pyrrha remarked firmly.

**-Salem's castle-**

**Salem looked upon the ancient painting of her deceased family. Her three daughters. Sepia, her youngest daughter. Sangria, her middle child, and Catalina her eldest child. Her beautiful children whom were taken from her by that man! She quelled her anger as she placed her hand on the image of Catalina.**

**"I'm sorry my sweet child, if i had known… I would have been there for you." she said sadly as a small tear escaped the corner of her. No longer was her kept in a bun much like before but now freely flowed as it did before in the past. A Crown upon her head and adorned in an outfit similar to her old one though much more majestic looking for the Queen of Remnant sector, dark purple veins raced across her deathly white skin. However, what drew attention away from her unnatural appearance were her eyes. They were no longer black with red irises but had gone back to what their original state before her Grimmification, a gift from her first born. Her light blue eyes looked over at the picture next to her daughters, another wave of sadness washed over her.**

"Eugh, so she too looks like a Grimm," gagged Nora, earning an offended look from Salem.

_'Not like I can blame her though… my aspect did change for the worse…'_ she told herself to keep calm. Those students could really get on her nerves sometimes… she was beginning to understand why Cinder found her job so hard.

"I guess it makes sense, then, for her 'children' to look like that too," noted Cinder, as if she hadn't already known of her mistress's aspect.

_'They were beautiful, and human… and now they're gone.'_ Salem blinked to get rid of the tears in her eyes. There was no point in dwelling in the past… nothing could bring her daughters back. Only the Gods… and they would _never_ do it, just like they had only brought Ozma back when it suited their needs.

**"Jaune…" she placed a hand over the picture of dashing young man with golden hair and ocean blue eyes. He was smiling in the picture as he stood next to Salem. His smile, he shared many traits of Catalina, her eldest. His smile was the same as her and so was his personality, the urge to protect their family and those that couldn't defend themselves. But he was taken. Anger filled her as she looked at where he stood, or where he stood. She had him cut out of the picture long ago. **

**Ozma was the reason he was dead…**

"Ozma?" repeated Ruby. Odd how it sounded so similar to Ozpin, but of course that couldn't be true. While Ozpin was old, very old, he couldn't have possibly been _that_ old. Definitely not someone who would still be remembered in centuries to come.

Salem gritted her teeth. "Maybe it'll be explained…"

**-Long Ago-**

**A young Girl crawled her way out of the rubble of her former home. The magic she had was the only thing saved her but her sisters were not so fortunate. She looked around, seeing nothing but the remains of a place she once called home. A place that she had such lovely memories. A home filled with a family...family now gone. She heard something from behind a ruined wall, she clutched her side as blood ran from her cuts and scrapes. She looked from behind the wall, seeing her mother stand above her father. **

**She was saying something to him, something she couldn't hear. She was gonna call out to them, to stop this but before she could; she watched her mother kill her father. She was stunned. Horrified. She backed away as fear engulfed her.**

Salem turned away as tears sprung from her eyes. Unfortunately for her, none of her children had survived… and if they had, she'd never known.

The students too were horrified. "She killed her own husband in cold blood!" exclaimed Ruby, shocked.

It took Salem every ounce of control she had not to lash out and tell them exactly _whose_ fault it was, but the millennia had hardened her too much for mere words to cut her heart, even in her current vulnerable state.

**Fear that her mother would do the same to her. She ran away. She could hear the Grimm coming as she made her way out of the ruins of her former home. She stopped as she noticed something on the ground. A piece of one of the banners that adorned their home, bearing her mother's symbol. She grabbed it, looking at it before clutching it close to her chest.**

**She still loved her mother. One day. One day maybe they'll meet again. She ran with the banner In hand before any of the Grimm would find her.**

**The symbol of her mother, she was told it stood for bravery in the face of adversity. Defender of the weak. Honor. She would ensure these ideals her mother told her would never die. Catalina ran, hiding from the Grimm as she finally made her way to a nearby village.**

**The young princess would endure. Catalina would grow from a girl who only fantasized about being a warrior to actually becoming one; using her magic and the skills she would acquire, she sought to help others.**

Salem wished her daughter's story had been shown better, instead of mere flashes and short images. Was that what her eldest might've done, had she survived? Maybe she could still track down her descendants, had she lived?

**Taking the last name "Arc", she would go from village to village, aiding the people against bandits and Grimm alike. Catalina would eventually start a family, unable to pass her magic to her children, they would instead inherit huge amounts of Aura. More than anyone on Remnant. **

**The Arc's would become a well known family in time, skilled warriors would be born from this family. Their symbol, an altered Version that Catalina had made, two golden arcs was one that brought hope to many on the frontier. **

**Catalina would grow old, no longer able to wield her sword. She would die with a smile on her face, surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. A single tear escaping her eye as she remembered her sisters. Her father. And her mother. She had long ago forgiven her and had hoped to one day see her again…**

"How could she forgive her mother like that?" Weiss growled. She would never forgive her father, and he'd done a lot less than that Salem!

"A child's love holds no bounds," Salem murmured softly. "Eventually, when you're at death's door, nothing is important any more. Nothing but the people you call family… no matter what they've done."

She knew it was true, because she'd always been ready to forgive Ozma, had he come back and truly apologized, not just empty words that meant nothing. She had still been ready to forsake the Gods and live with him forever… but that had ceased millennia prior. Now, she just wanted revenge, because he'd made his choice…

And he found love elsewhere, away from her.

**-many years later- **

**A Young boy played outside near his village, wielding a wooden sword and pretending to fight off bandits. His golden locks swayed with every movement as his ocean blue eyes look for the imaginary danger.**

**"Take that you band it scum!" A six year old Jaune arc yelled out as she slashed his wooden sword around. **

**"Let's go then sir knight!" A voice yelled from behind. Jaune stopped and looked, seeing his friend, Nokris with his own wooden sword. The boy was no older than six himself. His indigo eyes locked onto his friend. He wore bandanna over his face, adding to his bandit costume. His brown hair tied into a ponytail. Jaune let out a yell as he charged at his friend, sword raised as his friend simply moved out of the way, causing the young boy to stumble and fall. Nokris walked over, his sword pointed at Jaune's throat. **

"Hey, isn't Nokris…"

"The name of one of the Sons of Salem, the one Malach, the third born, called his 'older brother', and thus Salem's second born?" Cinder finished in Ruby's stead. "Yes, it is. Apparently, they were childhood friends."

Pyrrha, meanwhile, smiled at how cute Jaune was as a child… though seeing him like that was kinda weird since she liked the older version and was now looking at child him.

**"Surrender knight!"**

**"Never! An Arc never surrenders!" Jaune stated, knocking his friend back as they fought. Laughing and smiling as they played. Unaware of the snickering scorpion Faunus who watched from behind the trees a good distance away. Bandits hidden behind him as they waited.**

**"Oh the fun we will have. Play and play to your heart's content little ones!" He snickered, "come tonight, itll be our turn to play and you won't like the outcome." **

"Who's that?!" Pyrrha shouted, worried for Jaune.

Salem sighed. "Probably not good news," she said, and she knew it was true. Tyrian was _never_ good news, even when he succeeded in his mission.

"But hey, guys, cheer up!" exclaimed Yang. "Nothing happened to _our_ Jaune, which means all we saw will never happen in our universe!"

Salem frowned at that, but everyone else seemed relieved. Even for Cinder and her pawns, it wasn't easy to see Grimm be so close to humans.

"Good insight, Yang Xiao Long." Everyone jumped and turned around at the sound of Lord Khor's voice. The man just stared at them blankly before sighing. "I hope you've learned something from all this…"

"Never to trust dreams?" Nora offered sadly. She liked her dreams…

"I was thinking something more along the lines of 'you know nothing of how the world works', but that is true too," Khor conceded with a nod. "Especially true is the fact that… if evil were to win, it would cease to be evil, and start being normal. So think… is this society really 'good'… or are you just told it is, and used to see it as such? Or is it just another conqueror who forced that idea in your mind…"

He smirked. "You'll have all the time you wish to think in the morning. For now… it's time to wake up."

And everything vanished.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Hello again, no this story wasn't just a random oneshot and here is the second chapter. Like the first, commission by azuring-galaxy, story by Mika, and for Mika. Mika, galaxy, everyone, enjoy!_**

It had been quite the strange day for Team RWBY.

The morning had gone by normally enough – everyone of them had been absent-minded and lost in their own thoughts, but none had mentioned the absolutely shocking and realistic dream they all had.

Mostly because they all woke up late and had to rush to class as soon as they were able to process they actually needed to be in class. Fortunately, Professor Port was always the first teacher of the day and he was immensely forgiving when it came to small delays like that – though that didn't stop him from giving them, Team JNPR and Cinder's team a ten page essay on how Grimm could breach a village's defence and how they could prevent that. All in all, a small punishment compared to what other teachers could've done.

The dream remained on their mind all day. Ruby pitied Team SSSN, who had to fight in the tournament that afternoon. With how scatterbrained everyone was, they'd be lucky to last two minutes against a more well-rested team. At least hers and Cinder's had fought the day prior anyway. Though considering that none of Team SSSN had been in the dream, maybe they were well-rested themselves. At least Team JNPR had fought the day prior.

Speaking of Cinder's team, it seemed that the rest of it, the antisocial Mercury and Cinder alongside the weird 'Neo', had come out of their shells. CMNE, or Team Carmine if Ruby wasn't wrong, today was sitting with them at the ramen stand managed by the old shopkeeper Ruby had helped before entering Beacon – she guessed that, after all the damage done to his shop, the poor man had just changed business altogether. At least, criminals usually didn't rob simple ramen stands like his 'A Simple Wok'.

JNPR arrived a tad later, and immediately demonstrated just how heroic they really were by helping Team RWBY out once Weiss's card was rejected. And thank the gods they did, because Team RWBY was _really_ hungry. Who wouldn't be? That afternoon there were the last Team Vs Team fights, she really didn't want to end up hungry in the middle of watching some awesome weapon in use!

"So, anyway, did you really dream about some futuristic, Grimm-allied world ruled by some 'ancestor' of mine who also happened to be the Queen of the Grimm?" Jaune nonchalantly asked, causing Team RWBY and CMNE to almost spit out their noodles. Ruby actually did. Mercury was less lucky, and ended with noodles trying to exit from his nose, which is scientifically proven to be extremely painful. "Nora didn't shut up about it for a single second this morning. I thought it was just some new odd dreams of hers, but Ren and Pyrrha insist she's right."

Taking a moment to recollect herself, Cinder was the first to speak. "I had no time to discuss this dream with my teammates this morning due to waking up late, but if three of your team members insist it's true, then maybe it wasn't a normal dream, after all."

"Of course it wasn't!" Nora cut in, a tad exasperated at never being believed. "Korry is real! He made us sleep all together so we'd dream what he wanted, and then made us wake up late!"

"You can guess just how well trying to explain her excuse for waking up late to the teachers went…" Jaune groaned miserably. "Especially the 'slept all together' piece…"

Everyone glared at Nora for accidentally implying they had had a massive three-team orgy and tired themselves out so much they couldn't wake up in time.

"Well, I was right, no?" Nora grinned and scarfed down a third of her gigantic bowl of noodles in under five seconds. Then she burped loudly, declaring she'd finished her part in the dialogue.

"So you all really dreamed that?" Jaune asked, turning to the others as he continued to eat from his own bowl.

"Mind your own business," Mercury replied bluntly, not deigning the blond of another glance. To his eyes, the Arc was completely uninteresting. No remarkable combat skills, no good jokes, no amusing behaviour, nothing. He was just a mild-mannered, well-behavioured kid and nothing else.

At least the others had something. Little Red had her stupid naivety. The Ice Queen had her daddy issues. Kitty Cat was a former terrorist. Boobs McTits had her mommy issues and her temper. Nikos, whose strength he respected enough to use her last name, had her naivety and her stupid attachment to friends. Hansel and Gretel in brocon version, enough said. But that bumbling idiot of a team leader? If Mercury had to list all the possible threats in Beacon, JNPR's leader would be dead last, right after the janitors.

So, not even worth talking to.

Unfortunately, Cinder didn't think so. "Mercury, be nice. Just because you woke up late despite all your training doesn't mean you can be so rude to Emerald's friends."

Said green-haired bitch smiled in a saccharine way that totally didn't fit her dislike for him.

"Nah, it's fine. I mean, he's not wrong, if you don't want to talk about it, I shouldn't pry," Jaune waved off the assassin's rudeness. "I was just curious. Never heard of something like this before. Even back home, sure me and my sisters sometimes had collective dreams, but they were always only between twins, and never more than two, max three people at a time. You guys were twelve, counting that Salem lady Nora told me about. You should tell someone about this, it could be important. Scientific discoveries or something."

"You're not wrong, it _is_ unheard of for so many people to experience a collective dream outside of a Semblance, but I think you are overreacting to this whole thing," Weiss replied coolly, always the rational one. "The most probably hypothesis is that one of the transfer students used their Semblance to give us a restless sleep and confuse us. We _are_, after all, the most likely teams to win the Festival – no offence to all the others, of course."

"And that Salem chick?" Yang asked, backing up Jaune. "Who was that? It's someone Cinder knows and respects, but she's not a student, so why would she be trapped in there too? I'm with Jaune, maybe we should tell someone."

"But what if they disqualify us from the Festival?" Blake intervened evenly, attracting everyone's attention. She idly played with the now-fishless noodles in her bowl. "Let's be honest – something like this _is_ something a psychiatrist could make a big fuss about. Three teams having the same dream of a futuristic, dystopic world where humanity is allied with Grimm? Even the kindest of psychiatrist would at least take us out of the Festival and possibly the school to minimize stress and anxiety they could possibly cause. We'd need to undergo some exams – just as if we were to be injured without Aura. And rules state that all participants of the Vytal Festival Tournament have to be in good health to prevent accidents during the fights. Physical and mental health alike."

"So you're saying that if we go to a shrink they're gonna label us as crazy," Mercury summed everything up with a deadpan. Honestly, he shouldn't have been too surprised – nowadays, psychiatrists could paint anyone in a bad light for the smallest of things. One read a bit slower than normal? Dyslexic. One's handwriting looked like chicken droppings? Dysgraphic. See? He was a freaking assassin and had already named two of those cases. He _really_ didn't want to end up seeing a shrink. He'd rather keep the insanity.

"The correct term is psychopaths," Weiss corrected him, as if that would make them feel better. "Despite being usually used in a negative context, the word comes from psyche and pathology, literally mind and illness, which means a 'psychopath' is one that suffers of any kind of mental illnesses." Then, almost as an afterthought, she added, "I'm no doctor, of course. This is just the exact meaning of the term's origins."

Everyone stared at her for a second before Blake cleared her throat, ignoring the interruption. "Anyway, I think we should keep this to ourselves. If Weiss's theory is correct, then these dreams will go away after the Vytal Festival, once the Tournament is over. Asking for help is not always the best way to go."

Jaune's eyebrows were high by the time she'd stopped talking. "Well, what about the teachers? If this theory is true maybe they might be able to do something – I don't really think it's legal to use one's Semblance to interfere with other teams."

"Of course it isn't, that'd be sabotage," Cinder replied calmly, hiding a tiny smile as she picked up some noodles, trying to eat with as much elegance one could have while eating noodles with sticks. "Which would be very severely punished. Disqualification at the very least."

"However, if the teachers do not find anyone with a Semblance capable of doing that, then we might be back by the psychiatrist's door," Emerald continued with a grimace.

"Though I wonder why Jaune wasn't there with us," Ren thought out loud, which made some of them shrug helplessly.

"Well, if it's all the work of a Semblance, then it's probably because he's not really worth it," Mercury stated bluntly. Feeling everyone's glares on him, he shrugged. "Hey, I'm telling the truth, am I not?"

"No, you're not!" Nora only glared harder at his words. "Fearless Leader is great!"

"While I cannot possibly say Jaune is on our level yet, he has certainly improved in the months since the beginning of the school year," Weiss replied coldly. Unlike his courting skills, his fighting prowess had been steadily improving, and she could clearly see that. Already he could wipe the floor with some of the weaker students, and go toe-to-toe with the average ones. It wasn't his fault if he'd been put in a group with seven prodigies.

"Mercury. Apologize." Cinder's cold voice was actually the only thing that moved him.

In his defence, Cinder's cold voice could move just about anyone.

With a sigh, he did as he was told. "Sorry, bad night and worse morning."

"Are you saying you're not always a prick?" Emerald sneered at him, taking the chance to make fun of the assassin.

"Go choke on a-"

"Mercury." He groaned and resumed eating, ignoring the triumphant and satisfied smile on Emerald's face.

"Anyway, I agree with Ms Belladonna – we should keep this a secret between us," the pyromage continued without deigning the assassin of a further glance. "Maybe it won't happen again."

"I agree, we should err on the side of caution," Ren added quietly.

"Well, why not? It's gonna be our secret secret!" Ruby exclaimed excitedly, forgetting that a secret shouldn't be talked about so loudly.

"Well, I don't see any harm in this plan," Pyrrha smiled disarmingly, and with that the argument was closed, more or less…

It didn't take long for the three teams to finish their bowls of noodles and for Team CMNE to wander off on their own. Team RWBY and JNPR ended up sticking together as they wandered the fair – well, calling it fair would've been underselling it. More like the huge, mind-boggingly, immense, never-ending, too-varied-to-comprehend, gargantuan fair that came alongside the Vytal Festival, which filled every single open space with stands of every kind, from games to candies to clothes to figurines of the participants – Beacon usually tried to prevent that kind of merchandise from being sold, but it was impossible to close all those stands.

Jaune had soon resigned himself to remain mostly in the dark about the weird dream the others had, as well as accepting the fact that he would never know why the others dreamed while he didn't – or at least, he didn't dream what they did.

As opposite to what people might think, the group didn't go bankrupt by doing some shopping by those stands. The prices, while definitely not cheap, weren't much higher than usual. The immense flow of people made sure to keep the money flowing in the sellers' pockets anyway.

In the end, given how neither team had to fight that afternoon, they took their time. Ruby and Nora had to be more or less carried away by some of the candy stands to prevent them from raiding the sweets. Jaune, Pyrrha and Yang all bought very little but spent a lot of time just window-shopping. Ren, Blake and Weiss were the ones who appreciated it the least, due to how chaotic and noisy everything was.

Oh, and poor Nora even had her wallet stolen. Huge and chaotic crowds like those were good places for amateur pickpockets to try their luck, since it was more or less impossible to tell who it'd been when everyone bumped into everyone else constantly.

Not that she had a lot of Lien in there anyway, not after shopping for candies, and identification was all on phones and such nowadays. The thief had probably given themselves a heart attack by pickpocketing a Huntress in training and gotten almost nothing out of it.

Nora didn't even realize her wallet had disappeared anyway.

/-/

Cinder's made-up last name was Fall, nor Fail. She didn't appreciate not being able to find out who had caused her dream. 'Lord Khor whatever' didn't give her many hints, either – it was obviously just a creation of the Dream Semblance user. No one on Remnant could look like that, unless they had an Illusion Semblance. Anyway, no one in Beacon looked like that.

Her search had been completely unsuccessful, to put it mildly. She just didn't want to say a failure.

However, a call from Watts, and thus from her Mistress herself, the Queen of the Grimm, had all but put an end to her Semblance theory. There was no way Salem would've been caught in its effect. That meant there was something else at play, something immensely powerful.

Salem had offhandedly mentioned the Gods themselves might've had a part in it, but even she was sceptical. Had the Gods done it, they would've made sure to appear and show off their powers, as Salem had very graciously put it. They wouldn't have been content with letting them be met with a freaky future-teller or whatever.

Furthermore, even the Gods probably couldn't see the future… probably.

Which meant some other powerful, magical entity was at play. Which meant there _was_ another powerful, magical entity aside from Salem and the Gods in the first place – she didn't count Ozpin as he wasn't powerful any more, and had wasted so much magic he barely could be considered a wizard now.

The thought itself terrified her, but Salem had been strangely calm about it.

True, maybe this 'Lord Khor' couldn't reach them unless they were dreaming and thus couldn't harm them, but still it was nothing to scoff at. He could destroy them with nightmares or reveal all their secrets. Just because he hadn't done so already didn't mean it couldn't happen in the future.

Cinder hadn't made it so far in life without a healthy dose of paranoia.

Her sidekicks were taking it much better. Not knowing the full story, they just assumed Salem had reassured her and thus there was nothing to worry about.

Though explaining to Neo who Salem was had been quite stressful. _Obviously_, they hadn't told her the full truth, but still… it hadn't been something she'd really looked forward to doing. The best way would've been to leave the woman in the dark until the end and even longer if possible.

Nonetheless, with Salem's reassurances and warnings in mind, Cinder could only ponder the final part of the whole event she still had trouble understanding.

The actual dream.

She wasn't a stranger to death, especially when dealt by her own hand, so she hadn't been too horrified by what she'd seen. True, she liked genocide as much as the next guy, which wasn't much, but witnessing one didn't bring her to her knees, crying her eyes out or puking everything she'd ever eaten. She didn't approve of certain decisions, but eventually she'd planned on destroying all of Vale and leaving all its citizens to be devoured by the Grimm – not exactly too far off from what some of those 'Sons of Salem' had done to rebel worlds. 'Lord Ares' might've been more barbaric than she liked her underlings to be, and Lord Malach maybe a tad too merciful in just accepting their surrender without batting an eyelid, but overall it wasn't something she _wouldn't_ do herself.

The two little girls, Mauve and Maze, had been a part she hadn't been truly interested in. Their childish and girlish gossiping had been pointless, and even though it had revealed some small elements of interest, it had been eventually not worth the time.

Of course she hadn't been given a choice, but the point still stood.

Even more pointless was the last segment. If Tyrian had really found the guy when he was a kid, then the guy shouldn't have survived, period. She knew Tyrian. He was odd to say the least and downright a psychopathic and murderous madman to say the worst. She wouldn't trust him with a feather – he could probably kill someone with that alone.

The day had passed relatively quickly for Cinder and her group. After all, they didn't need to compete with anyone as they had already demolished a team the day prior.

It was only once the first tendrils of sleep had begun to crawl at the edges of her vision that she remembered something.

They hadn't asked the Arc boy if he knew someone called Nokris. That could've been truly helpful. _'No matter, I will ask him tomorrow if I get the chance,'_ she decided.

"_**And what if you don't?**_" a sardonic voice replied as sleep finally won her over. "_**Toying with people is too fun, I should do it more often.**_"

/-/

Lady Salem, no last name since no one bothered with last names when she was born, was far from being as calm as she'd made Cinder think.

Especially since she was now back in whatever dreamscape she'd been the last time, which oddly resembled Beacon's cafeteria for some reason.

Those naive students and her underlings were there too, for some reason. Probably the same reason that brought them there in the first place the first time.

"_**I apologize for not warning you last time wasn't the **_**last****_ time… Terribly sorry. It seems it slipped my mind._**"

Strangely enough, Salem believed that voice, Lord Khor or whatever it actually was.

The strange man with wings and crystals in his skin slowly faded into existence before their eyes. However, unlike last time, he didn't fully form, but maintained a more ethereal body, almost like a ghost. "_**I hope you won't hold a grudge against me for my mistake.**_"

"For your mistake? No, why should we?" Mercury snarked aggressively. "For bringing us here? Yes! Very much so! So why don't you send us back to ease all that guilt of yours?"

"_**I'm afraid I won't be sending you back until you've seen what I brought you here to see.**_" Lord Khor looked around and took in their expressions. "_**However, it seems you have questions… a lot of them, am I right?**_"

"For once, is this really a dream?" asked Weiss. "Initially I thought I just had a very strange dream, but then everyone said they had it too, which means it actually _was_ abnormal. Dreaming the same thing in twelve is not normal. At first I thought it was a Semblance of some kind, but then why would it concern Lady Salem as well?"

"_**To answer both of your questions in order, yes this is indeed a dream, merely one I am shaping to my own wishes. And two, it concerns Lady Salem because this is a view of a possible future, one that concerns her as much as it does you.**_"

"But how are you doing this?" asked Blake.

"_**I believe I answered that question already. I am merely shaping your dreams into what I need. And before you even ask no, it is not a Semblance.**_" The man snorted as if the mere thought of using a Semblance was ridiculous. "_**I don't even **_**have****_ a Semblance. This is magic. As I said prior this meeting, you are looking for a complex answer, all the while ignoring what is right in front of you._**"

"We let it slip the first time because we assumed it was just a dream," Cinder rebuked immediately. "I don't believe it. You cannot have magic."

"_**I don't have magic – I **_**use****_ magic. It is fairly different. One implies magic itself is in my being, making me a magical entity or something similar. The second only means I know how to use the magical energy to suit my needs._**"

"That answer is so empty it's a miracle I heard it at all," Mercury retorted angrily. "You didn't tell us how you did it, you just corrected some stupid grammar error!"

"_**Her grammar was fine, actually. I merely pointed out how she phrased it, so her mistake was in her syntax.**_"

"Are you fucking kidding me?!"

"Mercury, please calm down. It will do us no good to anger him," Cinder immediately pacified him before the situation could get any worse. The man didn't seem fazed by either the tone or the insults, but given the answer he'd offered the assassin, he wouldn't hesitate to twist any question into useless answers. "Lord Khor. Are… Can you use magic?"

"_**Normally I'd ask you to specify what kinds of magic, but generally… yes, I can.**_"

"So you used magic to bring us all here, to show us something you say might be the future, on a whim?" Weiss inquired once more.

"_**I never said I did it on a whim. I've been asked to bring you here, but this is nothing that concerns you. You don't need to know. Now, can we move onto the future, or do you have any more questions?**_"

"I do!" asked Nora. "If the future is about Fearless Leader, why isn't he with us?!"

"Nora is right. Jaune should be here with us. Not only because this regards him very directly, but also because he's our friend and showing us without showing him seems like you've purposefully ignored him," Ren agreed with his childhood friend. "Besides, I do not see what harm it might cause to bring him here."

"Yeah, I mean, even if we were to see something about him that is either bad or embarrassing, we're friends," Ruby immediately followed up. "We might tease him a bit but we wouldn't make a big deal out of it."

Lord Khor shrugged. "_**I wasn't asked to bring him here, so I didn't. And besides, this might be a far future, but his actions **_**now ****_are what will make or destroy this future. Letting him see the results of his actions centuries in the future might influence his actions in the present, and that is to be avoided._**"

"Then why let us see?" asked Pyrrha. "We are his friends. We already told him about the first dream. In a way, we are already influencing him. So what does it change?"

"_**It's very simple. Answer this little question of mine: what tells you I won't be erasing all of this from your and Jaune's memory once this is all over, until you will have taken the actions that will either ensure this future or forsake it forever? And only after you've taken those actions, give you back your memories of what will or could've happened?**_"

Silence fell over everyone in the room. That was actually a good point. They couldn't know whether Lord Khor would let them keep their memory or not, mostly because none of them had even thought he could take their memory away in the first place.

"_**Please, this is still just a dream. Do not be afraid. I will do you no harm.**_" The hazy figure they knew was a half-corporeal Lord Khor put his hands up as if to reassure them he had no weapons. As if wizards needed weapons. "_**Mostly, though, I didn't bring him for the sake of keeping it simple. Do you have any more questions?**_"

"Yes, why are you showing us all of this if then you're gonna erase our memories as soon as it's over?" Weiss asked, hiding her anger with practised ease.

"And even if you are not going to erase our memories, what is the point of showing us a far future like this? Grimm ruling the world? Are you trying to help us prevent it, or making it come true?" Pyrrha continued Weiss's question, her combat instincts telling her to be on high alert even if there was no threat. "I doubt you are doing this just for fun."

"_**Your doubt is unfounded. You don't know me or my motives. In a way yes, I am doing this for fun. Messing with mortals has a way of brightening your day like nothing else.**_" Salem glared at him for that little comment. Oh, she remembered very well just how much the Gods loved to mess with mortals and make them pay for mistakes they hadn't made. "_**As for why I'm showing you this, again, because I've been told to and I'm following orders. Or, well, requests. I've been asked to do this and I accepted. I take orders from no one but a selected few.**_"

"Like your mother?" Nora guessed, earning herself incredulous stares from everyone. "What?"

"Nora, you can't just _say_ that!" Blake hissed, shocked.

"_**That is… correct. Though she doesn't have control over everything in my life, just… a big part of it.**_" Lord Khor chuckled. It was amusing how of everyone in the room, he was the only one who either had a mother or followed her orders aside from Pyrrha. Ruby, Yang, Ren, Nora, Cinder, Mercury, Emerald, Neo and Salem didn't have mothers any more, either missing or dead. Weiss and Blake had one, but didn't really follow their orders. Weiss because she gave no orders, being always drunk, and Blake because she just was too rebellious to follow those orders, like when she joined the White Fang.

What a happy bunch of mommy issues jammed together.

"_**However, this matters not. In fact, if you don't have any more questions, I'd like to-**_"

"Wait! You didn't answer my question!" Pyrrha interrupted him, though not unkindly. "Are you doing this to disrupt this future or to ensure it?"

"_**That, Ms Nikos, is entirely up to you and your friends. Whether you know it or not, your actions will always change the path of the future. Maybe you will try to disrupt it and instead ensure it. Maybe you will try to make it happen and instead forsake it. Or maybe you will succeed in whatever you wish for it to happen. As I said, it all depends on you and your choices.**_"

"This answer is more bullshit than the riddles in videogames," Mercury lamented.

"Do not offend Lord Khor, Mercury," Salem spoke up, making him freeze even better than how Cinder could. Emerald allowed herself a small smirk at seeing the assassin squirm. It was her favourite pastime. However, Salem seemed not to be as icy as Cinder could be, ironically since she used fire. "Though he does have a point. You told us how the future will happen, but you didn't tell us _your_ reasons. Do _you_ wish for it to happen, or not?"

Khor shrugged his incorporeal shoulders. "_**To be honest, I am a neutral party on this one. Usually, I'd be taking a side or the other, but when it comes to possible futures, I'm usually very mild in my bias. Of course I'd prefer if Grimm did not rule the world, but if people live happily in the land of darkness, who am I to interfere? So my answer is neither. I do not wish for it to happen just like I do not wish for it to not happen.**_"

"Vaguest answer ever…" Mercury muttered under his breath.

_'I hate to say this, but I agree with Mercury on this one,'_ Emerald thought with a grimace.

"So you are doing this because you were asked to, and not because of personal interest in the matter?" Salem summed up his answer quite nicely.

"_**No personal interest in changing the future, no. My personal interest lays in the amusement your reactions to what will be shown will bring me. Do not take this as a personal offence, though, it is quite common for people with power to enjoy using it whimsically. You did nothing wrong.**_" Lord Khor could clearly see they didn't like the answer they'd been given, and truth to be told, they had no reason to like it – he'd basically just compared them to circus entertainment. "_**Would you not be amused by seeing people see the future in a way none of them expect, and freak out about it, to use a term you might be familiar with?**_"

"It might be funny, but it's not really nice to them," Yang admitted. She'd never actually been a bully, but sometimes she did like to prank people just to see how they would react. That was kind of a gigantic prank on all of them.

"_**Our definitions of nice are not the same. Now, can we start?**_"

Since no one said anything, Lord Khor seemed satisfied with taking it as a yes. His form faded away, as if he'd never been there, kinda like a ghost. A friendly ghost, at least. Their surrounding changed, and much like the first time, Beacon's cafeteria warped away, leaving them in an empty void which was soon filled with more colours and sounds. It seemed to be a… school classroom?

"Hey, isn't that Oobleck's classroom?" asked Ruby, squinting hard. "The map of Remnant on the back is more or less the same, but covered in stuff. And there is a picture of Oobleck on the wall, with some caption too. Too small to read though."

"Ruby, it might look like our classroom, but this is centuries in the future," Weiss reminded her.

"Yes, but if Jaune Arc is so important to the future, being the Firstborn, maybe your professor was remembered as the one who taught him," Salem explained quietly. It wasn't likely, but it wasn't too unlikely either. People did weird things to remember, and even weirder things to be remembered.

**Mauve yawned as she was growing tired, it was the last class of the day and the one she dreaded the most...History. "Ah by the ten kill me." she murmured as a mixture of faunus and human students talked amongst themselves. What they were talking about she didn't care for but two of her teammates walking was a welcome sight. Maze, and Thara, Their blonde and red haired leader of their team. She yawned as well, laying her head down and bringing up the hood of her cloak to hide her head. "Guess someone feels like napping." she thought as Maze brought out her notes.**

"That Thara one is a descendant of Ruby's," Weiss, Blake and Yang immediately noted, pointing at the cloak.

"Hey, I'm not the only one in the world to wear cloaks!" protested Ruby.

"No, but your uncle Qrow and professor Goodwitch are the only other two we know who wear them, and honestly I can't see either of them having children," Weiss replied without missing a beat.

"She might just be someone who likes cloaks," Cinder sighed, already a tad exasperated by their childishness. "Or maybe she's copying the style of someone she knows."

"She's right! I copied Qrow anyway, so maybe someone just wore it and she copied it too!" Ruby exclaimed, nodding her head excitedly.

**"****Okay Everyone, sit down please. We will be continuing yesterday's lesson." the professor stated, the mocha skinned raven haired woman walked in from a side door, books in hand as she began typing on near her desk. Immediately the classroom darkened and a massive holographic screen appeared. The Students quieted down as the looked at the screen, various images of helmeted individuals appeared. The professors red eyes looked at her class, she cleared her throat before speaking.**

"I'm guessing those are the Firstborns of Salem," Yang threw out and struck true.

"It's not so hard to see, given how important they seem to be in this world," shrugged Emerald. Give credit where credit is due as long as it's not Mercury. "Maybe we're gonna be told a little more about them. Though that professor looks kinda familiar in some way."

"Grand-grand-granddaughter of someone you know?" questioned Mercury, earning himself looks from the others. "Hey, in the first dream they said it's been centuries, it's not so hard to think everyone we know isn't around any more."

"That's possible," nodded Salem, though she had the inkling of just who that person might've been. She was _very_ observant, after all.

**"****Okay, so we had just gotten finished with the Imperium rediscovering our sector, when was that?" she asked, looking around her room and upon the rows of students. Maze raised her hand.**

**"****Exactly 480 years ago ma'am!" Maze stated as Thara looked at her unsurprised, she was the brains of their team after all.**

"See? It's been almost five centuries since those Impe-something guys found us, bet it was even longer since our age," Mercury noted dismissively, waving a hand at the image around him.

"We already knew that, dumbass," Emerald replied with a sneer. "No need to show just how dumb you are every time something happens."

"Mercury, Emerald, stop fighting," Cinder said automatically.

Team RWBY snickered. And they thought they were bad!

**"****Excellent."**

**"****What have been the positives of the Imperium rediscovering our Sector?" she asked.**

**"****We experienced a huge surge in technological advancement. Not only that, but thanks to the new technology and the discovery of new energy sources, Our Queen was able to lead our people to colonize the numerous planets in our Sector and effectively establishing her kingdom across it." Another student answered, the professor smiled. **

"Basically, they helped this 'Salem' chick become ten times stronger and use her Grimm to kill more people," Blake summed up angrily. "So she could subjugate even more civilizations."

"Grimm can be used for good if the one who wields them is pure of heart," Salem replied, hiding her anger under a veil of indifference. That girl was a hypocrite through and thorough. She'd just dropped out of the _White Fang_, and then she judged someone by their choice of weaponry, so to speak? Sure, the Grimm might've been mindless tools of destruction, but destruction could build a lot of things, if aimed the right way.

"Grimm are evil and whoever uses them is even more so," Weiss replied icily, not liking how she'd just defended the Grimm. "No sane person would ever ally themselves to those monsters."

"We'll see."

**"****Okay now Students, while i would love to go over yesterday's information I have something that will definitely be to your liking." She began to type away on her scroll, the students looking up at the screen once more as the images disappeared, being replaced by far more common and interesting images. "Today we will be going over "The First Ten" extensively instead of just briefly going over the important information." Many students began to whisper amongst themselves. Many were excited at the prospect of learning more about them. Maze and Mauved looked at Thara, they knew she didn't like talking about the first born.**

"I wonder why," drawled Yang. "Maybe she feels uncomfortable about who slaughtered entire planets for shits'n'giggles and by order of the Queen of the freaking Grimm?"

Salem snorted. "Wasn't the Firstborn your very own friend?" she shot back, hiding a smirk when the other blonde faltered.

"Uhm… then maybe she doesn't like that Jaune never killed anyone and was tricked into helping the Grimm?" Ruby offered shyly, almost succeeding in making Cinder scoff.

"Or maybe she just doesn't know much about him and she fears it's gonna be a pop quiz," shrugged Neo. She knew she would hate it. As everyone who ever went to school, she loathed pop quizzes.

**"****Okay, We will be starting with the First born; Jaune Alexandros Arc." she pressed on her scroll and an image of an older Jaune popped on the screen. He was donned into what appeared to be his Primaris marine armor, his armor colored white with gold trim. His hair was long, tied into that of warrior's wolf tail. A goatee on his chin. He was smiling in the picture, some students noting how handsome he looked and how blue his eyes were.**

Pyrrha blushed slightly and smiled at seeing the older Jaune. "He looks good with a ponytail like that," she commented, even though it wasn't the very style she used she was still happy he had a similar hairdo.

"He's improved," Weiss conceded with a shrug. Now that he'd stopped courting her, she didn't have much of a problem with him any more, and she wasn't above complimenting his looks, but she didn't feel anything for him and looks wouldn't change that.

"I think he should've cut his hair short, kinda like Sun," Nora mused, only for Yang to shiver in horror.

"Nora, no! That'd look horrible on him!" she exclaimed. Though her second reason was that she hated anything to do with haircuts, even on others.

Blake shrugged. "He should ditch the goatee. Shaving fits him better."

"I think he looks really good either way," Ruby replied with a smile. She always liked when her friend got compliments – in her opinion, he got too few of them even though he worked very hard! "Though that armour doesn't fit him, it's too bulky. He'd be better off with lighter armour that allows him for better movement."

"Of course you'd focus on that," Weiss groaned, but she was still smiling. "Though you're not exactly wrong. He is more of a fencer than a tank. Still, I agree with Blake, he should shave. It gives him an air of purity… more like the paladin theme he's got going on."

"Weiss? I thought you disliked Jaune," Ren said, surprised.

"I don't dislike _him_. I hated his courtships and his methods." Weiss shuddered. The horror… "Jaune is a good person, even if not someone I get along great with. I'm not above complimenting him when he deserves it. Whether that is often or not, well, that depends entirely on him."

**"****We were just talking about him too!" Whispered Mauve to Maze, she nodded slightly. Thara sighed as the professor continued. **

**"****Now, Lord Arc was one of the first ten. The first ten being the first Primaris Marines created from Queen Salem's own children and for a time, they were the only ones." she explained. "Lord Arc was the first one to undergo the procedure to become a Primaris Marine followed by the others, whom we will be getting to. Now what is Lord Arc's title?"**

"Undergo the procedure to become a Primaris Marine?" Ren repeated, suspicious. "That doesn't sound good. At all."

"It probably isn't," shrugged Mercury, uncaring of the discomfort that brought the other students. "I mean, have you seen those guys? The training required to even just fight in those armours must be hellish. They must've put him through the grinder over and over again."

"Can you really never keep your mouth shut?" Emerald snapped, fed up with hearing the assassin's voice.

"Jeez, can you go five minutes without yapping at me?" he replied, sick of being shut up and insulted just because Emerald was attention starved and thought that if she made Cinder see him as useless she'd be loved more. As if that'd ever happen.

"Mercury, Emerald, behave," Cinder ordered again, this time more firmly. "I will not tolerate you two fighting each other for much longer, am I understood?"

Emerald's reply was meek but triumphant. "Yes Cinder.

Mercury's was less emotional. "'s long as she can."

The mint-haired girl's eyes blazed for a second, but a glare to both from their boss shut her up. She'd take Cinder being angry at her and _Mercury_, at the very least Mercury was amongst those Cinder was angry at.

**"****Oh! He was known as the Knight!"**

"That's so Jaune-like we would've guessed his identity even hadn't we known it was him," Pyrrha laughed cheerfully, happy to see her team leader remembered in the way he would've liked.

"Well, that's the only way I can see Jaune accept being called," Ren smiled thinly. "That, or the Paladin."

Ruby shrugged. Knight sounded better than Paladin. For some reason. Paladin sounded more of a physical person, while Knight had more of an idealistic vibe to it.

**"****Exactly, and can someone explain why? Thara?" she stated, looking at the young girl as she hid in her hood.**

**"****Uh, because he looked like one?" she answered meekly. The Professor sighed at the answer.**

**"****No, That is not the reason. I am surprised by you Thara, I would think that a descendant of the first born would know the reason and even jump at the chance to speak about their Ancestor. Your family is quite legendary after all miss Arc-Rose." the teacher told her as Thara simply looked at the picture of her how many greats Grandfather. She sighed, she didn't want others to think she hated her family or something. **

Had the students been drinking something they would've spat it out. "Nani?!"

The bad guys were just laughed their asses off. Mercury and Neo, literally, while Cinder, Emerald and Salem inwardly.

"Ruby?! Are you secretly dating Jaune?!" Yang exclaimed, shocked and a tad angry she'd been kept in the dark.

Ruby, however, was just as shocked. "What? No! I don't like him like that! I mean, I guess I _could_ but I want to be a Huntress first! Besides, it wouldn't be fair to Pyrrha!"

The taller redhead sighed, shaking herself out of her surprise. "No, Ruby, don't worry about that. It's not fair to you to stop your own feelings just for my sake. I don't get to call dibs on him or something. He's a person, which means that he's the one who makes the choice. Don't feel like you shouldn't confess just because of me."

"He's my friend, but I don't see him like that!" Ruby repeated.

"Maybe not now, but maybe in the future you will," Weiss shrugged, secretly glad her partner had taken her place as the target of the man's affections. Not that she hated him, again he was a friend, but definitely not boyfriend material.

Ruby threw her hands in the air. "Are you even listening to what I'm saying!?"

"It's been centuries in this vision, maybe Jaune and Ruby didn't marry, but their descendants did and the two families fused anyway." Surprisingly, it was Ren who came to her rescue. "Maybe Pyrrha and Jaune got married, Ruby got married, then their children married each other, and thus the lineage of the Arc-Rose was born."

"It is quite possible," nodded Weiss. "Though that Thara girl looks a mix of Jaune and Ruby. If I were to imagine them having a daughter, she'd probably look similar to her."

Ruby grumbled unhappily. Jaune was a great friend, but she wasn't interested in romance yet!

**"****I'm sure he and Grandma Ruby would probably scold me or something." she thought but knew deep down, they wouldn't. She stood up and cleared her throat. "My Grandpa, Jaune Arc was known as the Knight because it was said not only did he look like one but also because of how honorable he was. He was known to always be the first to defend those that couldn't defend themselves. His kindness and selflessness was known all across our fledgling Kingdom." She continued. Maze and Mauve gave her a sympathetic look, she didn't like the attention she got just because she was his decadent and part of bother Arc and Rose Bloodlines.**

"See? This might mean Jaune and Ruby weren't involved in anything more than friendship," Weiss pointed out. "Otherwise there wouldn't an Arc Bloodline _and_ a Rose Bloodline, just an Arc-Rose Bloodline."

"That's not sure proof," Mercury countered just for the sake of embarrassing Ruby. "If this Jaune guy is so important, and Ruby is his girl, then maybe their families became important just because they were, and so-"

"Mer-"

"Emerald, stop making a fuss every time he speaks. He's allowed to say his opinion as long as he doesn't cause a fight," Salem spoke up, effortlessly terrifying the mint-haired girl in submission. Personally she liked Emerald more than Mercury, but spoiling her by letting her pick a fight every time she wanted was not her MO.

Mercury smirked as he finished. "So, it's very possible for them to have actually married!"

"I don't like Jaune that way…" Ruby grumbled again. He was a boy friend, not a _boy_friend!

**"****When our Queen was under threat, he gave his life without a second thought. It was because of his sacrifice that not only was the queen saved but the Wizard was forever vanquished. My grandpa…" she looked down a bit. "He was a good man. He loved his family. He fought for our peace and died, never to see his children grow old or be with his wife. Its because of his sacrifice, along with the others, that we are where we are now." she concluded as everyone looked at her. She sat down as she looked at the screen. She hoped her grandfather understood that she did love their family and was proud of her heritage, but the attention was too much at times. **

Pyrrha winced, she knew that feeling very well. "I guess it must be difficult to be the descendant of the greatest hero of all times," she sighed, ignoring the tiny thorn of envy. She really cared for Jaune, but everyone in Beacon aimed to be great heroes, so seeing her goal being obliterated was kinda stingy.

Weiss nodded. While sometimes she did use her fame to her advantage, it was taxing both on the mind, and on her friendships. Most people didn't have the guts to interact with people of her status without having said status themselves or wishing to take advantage of that fame. "Though her behaviour won't help much."

"Nothing can help when you are famous," Pyrrha replied glumly, sharing the heiress's pain all too well.

**"****Thank you Thara. Now, can someone name the Grimm mount he had?" **

**"****It was a king Taijitu." one student stated.**

"That was either incredibly easy, or one of those questions they ask you and it's invariably not as easy as it seems," Yang groaned, knowing that teacher just loved to outsmart their students with questions like that.

Of course, they did that only to test their students, but from the students' point of view, it looked like the teacher was just trying to trick them.

"Well, that covers the entirety of the range of questions," countered Neo, smirking. "Either easy or not easy. I bet it's a trick question no one knows about. Or maybe it's actually an easy question and a way for her to start talking about it. Honestly, either way it's quite the typical question for a teacher…"

Even as an assassin, she too had the misfortune of having been on the receiving end of such questions. Even Cinder found pleasure in asking them from time to time. It was infuriating.

**"****That's actually a misconception." she countered, earning surprising looks. "The actual name of the creature is an Emperor Hydra, so far this is the only one of its kind." she said, an image of the hydra's head popping on the screen. "Now the hydra is different from the King Taijitu is that it doesn't have an extra head where the tail should be. In Fact it only has one head but the creature is different in that if you were to decapitate the creature, it would regrow its original head along with a second one from the stump." she continued, surprising some of the students as they learned more about it. "For every head that is lost, two replace it. Though it is unknown if each is a new subconscious or they all share the same mind. The Emperor Hydra can reabsorb the heads by simply biting it off and letting the black mist return to the body, the stump where the second head was will simply disappear in time." She continued. "The Hydra does have a body along with four clawed legs, from what we know. It's simply buried its body near the base of the Statue of Lord Arc." she continued to explain.**

"Okay, that's honestly pretty overkill," admitted Yang, and she was the one who never backed down from a fight. Hearing her say a Grimm was overkill was truly the cherry on top of the cake – that Grimm was really really powerful.

"Weird. Hydras usually have multiple heads, not just one. Maybe the fact it's an _Emperor Hydra_ means it's a different kind of Grimm," mused Salem, never having seen that monster prior. Of course, she had some pretty big Grimm on her side, but still that was massive.

"No idea, but that thing has to be definitely the biggest Grimm ever!" exclaimed Nora, partially excited at the idea that such a big Grimm existed and partially scared by it. "I mean, if they thought its head was the biggest Grimm in the world, its whole body must be Brobdingnagian!"

"Brobding-what?" Weiss repeated, bewildered by the absolutely nonsensical word. "What does that even mean?!"

"It's a place where everyone is super big! A fully grown man of ours is as big as their pinkies!" Nora explained with a smile, as if it was obvious. "Why? You didn't know?"

Weiss rolled her eyes. Whatever that was, Nora had a point – that Grimm had to be bigger than anything she'd ever seen.

**"****So what were seeing wrapped around the base of the statue is a-"**

**"****Head. Yes, it simply coiled its head and neck around the base and went into a hibernation like state ever since Lord Arc's body was entombed there. The rest of the body is buried underneath. Unfortunately I can't show you as that information has since been revoked from public knowledge, hence why everyone thinks its a simply King Taitiju." she finished as the students looked at the picture before it disappeared. **

"A simple King Taijitu? Yeah, first they call it the biggest Grimm ever then they say it's a simple snake?" Yang huffed, a bit peeved at having been misled, even if accidentally.

"Well, compared to what it actually is, then yes it's simple," Pyrrha shrugged slightly, offering what little explanation she could come up with.

"Maybe in this case 'simple' is being used not as 'weak' but as 'not complex' or 'not exotic'," Weiss spoke up as well. "After all, no matter the size, the King Taijitu is one of the most known types of Grimm. Compared to Chimeras, dinosaurs and whatnot, it's not very strange. Maybe that's what she meant by simple?"

"It's probable," Salem absently agreed with her. "After all, there are more types of Grimm than even I know of, and I'm an expert on the matter. No one can know what types wander the farthest reaches of the Grimmlands." She hid a smirk. "Well, no one but that Queen of the Grimm this vision is showing us, I guess."

"Still not a fan of her," Yang grumbled, with the others agreeing.

**"****Ma'am, why is Lord Arc's different from the Sons of Salem armor?" Maze questioned, hoping to understand more.**

"It's probably because he was the first and the final design hadn't been decided yet," Cinder guessed randomly. "That, or he just had the right to wear whatever he wanted because he was the first."

"Which is more likely," nodded Salem. _'After all, it's quite easy to choose an armour design, so he would've probably had to change it. Being allowed to wear freely what he wanted sounds more realistic.'_

**"****Ah well, That was the original color of the Chapter, in fact the first ten all had similar color schemes. It was meant to be their chapter color designs but when Lord Arc was slain, it was decided by his remaining brothers and Queen Salem that only he was to have the honor of those colors. Another reason was to show the anger and grief that all Sons of Salem feel for his death. By taking the color of the Grimm, they invoke fear into our enemies and ensure none can ever bring harm to our kingdom or its people." she answered, hoping Maze was satisfied with the answer. "Now we are gonna talk about Lord Nokris." Suddenly an image came on screen, showcasing a helmet Primaris Marine, his helmet fashioned that into a dragon Grimm. **

"Noo, I wanted to see more of Fearless Leader!" Nora complained, pouting.

Her feelings were shared by all the other Beacon students. "I would've liked to know more about Jaune's past… well, future for us… especially if it meant we could avoid it," Pyrrha nodded.

"I fear we don't get to choose what we see," Emerald replied glumly. Otherwise, she'd never wish to see some far-away future she couldn't care less about.

"We don't even get to choose if to watch it or not," added Weiss. She made a show of trying to keep her eyes closed or turning away, but some unseen force she seemed to struggle with always countered her. "It's really as if we were in a dream, one not of our choosing, and we are powerless."

"So, basically, you mean a nightmare?" Yang summed it up. Everyone frowned. They all had experience with nightmares and no one ever liked them.

"I guess we could call it that," Weiss agreed grimly.

**"****Woah, I forgot how intimidating Lord Nokris looks with that helmet of his." Maze heard a student say. She looked at the picture intently, she was curious as to why he never took off his helmet. They've seen the others without their Helmets but never his. **

"Maybe he's so ugly he's ashamed of what's underneath?" Mercury called out with as much snark as he could put into his words, earning a strained chuckle from a couple of people. "Or maybe he's worn it for so long he's forgotten how to take it off…"

"Or maybe if you shut up we'd find out why," Emerald snapped.

Yes, Emerald really loved to snap at Mercury for anything.

**"****Now, Lord Nokris is the second Born of Salem with the title of "The Warlord", he is also the current chapter Master of the Sons of Salem. Lord Nokris is known as "The Warlord" because of the fact that our entire military is at his command. Only Queen Salem is above him." he explained. "Lord Nokris is the one who will proclaim war and is known to be the first on the battlefield whenever it is declared. He along with Lord Crimson and Lord Ares, led the expedition fleets when we started colonizing the rest of the system in our sectors. Waging War against the other Xenos civilizations that they came across and ensuring our Kingdom spread. The other reasons for his title has been revoked from public knowledge but his title alone should give an idea what those reasons are." **

"Because he is a mass-genocidal psychopathic murderer allowed to lead a massive army of interstellar warships and who is at the head of this multi-planetary Empire's military?" Weiss quipped with a whole load of sarcasm.

"Because he's a monster and he doesn't want people to know?" Blake added as well.

Salem felt her eye twitch. Truly, those children could be annoying. No wonder Cinder sounded always so angry about them whenever she contacted her. She was a millennia-old entity and they still managed to annoy her without even trying!

"Or maybe he just doesn't want people like you to spit on his name," Neo countered with an easygoing smile.

"Which is exactly what Blake said," Yang replied. _'I hadn't noticed earlier, but that Neo girl looks kinda familiar. I mean, there aren't many girls shorter than Weiss with a rack like that – she must be basically as big as me – so maybe I've seen her somewhere else… but where?'_

"Yes, without the monster part." Neo continued to smile beatifically. "After all, who likes to be called a monster? Who knows, maybe he had a good reason to kill people…"

"There's never a good reason to kill people!" Ruby exclaimed, outraged.

That did Mercury in. He burst out laughing uncontrollably, much to Cinder and Emerald's annoyance. "Oh my god… this is so precious… Just how naive can she be?!" he croaked out between guffaws. "And you've all killed people before too!"

"What?! No! I've never killed anyone!" she defended herself.

Yang decided to step in as well. "Yeah! What's your problem with my sister?!"

Mercury finally got his mirth under control and, ignoring Emerald's glare like he always did, turned to them. "Well, the first time she fought Torchwick, she killed four men who were with him. Blunt trauma and slash wounds. All her. Then when you all fought him again at the docks, and the accident was on the news by the way, Blake and that monkey boy killed a couple of dozen White Fang members… probably mostly him, though, it was all blunt trauma and she uses a bladed weapon. Oh, and what about the airships that have been cut in half by a laser? Some bisected, some fell and splattered, some died in the crash and burn landing." Mercury took a second to breath before continuing. "Then, third time fighting Torchwick, and I'll give you this: the Faunus he trampled wasn't your fault, but two died nonetheless. Dozens of deaths on the highway, again he did it but you brought him there. Then there's Mt Glenn – people saw _your team_ when the Grimm breached the city, and further investigation revealed that the railway leading to the city was littered with corpses of White Fang thrown off the train. Dr Oobleck took the blame, but his weapon is a mace, and those corpses had bullet and slash wounds – again, not something a flamethrower-mace can do. It's all public knowledge, you just have to look around a bit. Should I go on?"

Team RWBY felt the stares of Pyrrha, Nora and Ren and they all looked down to avoid meeting their eyes. At the time, they had been in high-adrenaline situations so they hadn't thought about it much, but in hindsight, being thrown off a train and into a horde of Grimm really wasn't a good way to stay alive.

Meanwhile, looking away from the ashamed and guilt-ridden team, Cinder glowered at Mercury. "What _was_ that?!" she hissed. He'd basically blown their cover! What kind of student investigated other teams' criminal record?!

"Hey, it happens when you scout the competition," he replied nonchalantly. "I just got curious since they are the only ones to have a bodycount already. Normally it starts on the second-year missions or later."

"That's not an excuse," Cinder retorted in rage, while Emerald watched on with a grin. She loved when Mercury messed up and got chewed out as a result. "I want you to apologize to them, _now_." To keep their cover and make Mercury look more like the blunt and socially inept guy he was pretending to be than the apathetic assassin he actually was.

Mercury shrugged. "Whatever, 's not like it was an accusation or anything." He turned to look at Team RWBY. "Hey, chicks-only team, it's not like Hunters aren't supposed to kill people. Hell, that's actually in the job description. I was just saying you're ahead of the others. I think killing is a third-year subject, at the very least, here in Beacon. No need to be ashamed."

Cinder face-palmed at the lousy apology, which didn't make Team RWBY feel any better. "Forgive my teammate, he's… awful in the art of interacting with people."

"He tells me to go kill myself a dozen times per day," Emerald piped up, all too happy to ruin Mercury's name a little bit more.

"He has no filter between his brain and his mouth," the bicoloured girl on their team finished with a grin. _'Though he's pretty hot, and that was spot on!'_

**"****So Lord Nokris simply destroyed these civilizations?" Maze asked,**

**"****To put it Simply, yes he did. He and the other ten led our military to annihilate quite a handful of Xenos civilizations in our sector, some had even colonized other planets in their systems." she answered, seeing the somber look on Maze's face made her continue. "But Lord Nokris did not outright wage war. We've yet to cover these civilizations but Lord Nokris did seek peaceful negotiations at first." Maze leaned in a bit, as her professor explained, as did others. "Lord Nokris and Queen Salem did try to reach peace with them, they figured that we could all live in our Sector peacefully and even establish alliances! However…"**

"However the Grimm turned out to be Grimm and those who ally themselves with them turned out to be just as bad," Blake spoke up angrily. "I don't understand how _anyone_ could ever see those who ally themselves to the Grimm as anything but evil."

_'Says the terrorist who had no problem stealing, hijacking and destroying cargoes, destroying private property, evading the law, and overall living like a criminal for five years,'_ Mercury commented in his head. Now, while he didn't condemn any kind of crime due to being a criminal himself, he couldn't help but notice the profound hypocrisy. _'Also the girl who then hates how humans insults Faunus and discriminate. Jeez, and she wants to become a Huntress?'_

"Or maybe he was forced to," Salem replied, straining to hide her anger. Those 'Sons of Salem' might not have been _her_ honorary children, but she always hated being close-minded.

Her own hypocrisy was lost to her.

"I'd rather desert than follow genocidal orders," Weiss scowled darkly, knowing her sister would do the same. She would always follow orders, but only if they didn't go against her morals.

**"****However?"**

**"****However, the Imperium discovered what they were doing and demanded we cease."**

Salem mentally blew everyone a raspberry and mentally gave them the finger. Served them right for being so aggressively hellbent on thinking the future evil just because they didn't understand it.

**"****But why?"**

**"****The Imperium of Man believes Humanity as the superior race and thus all other races are beneath them. The Imperium has annihilated countless other Xenos civilizations in its 10,000 years of existence. Even human Empires were destroyed for their refusal to join the Imperium or simply because they were allied with other Xenos races, either way, the Imperium destroyed them all." She looked at her students, some of their expressions were of shock. Understandable since Queen Salem ensured the Imperium's history was taught as little as possible to ensure their culture never intertwined with theirs. "When it was discovered what we were doing, Lord Nokris tried to reason with them. These Civilizations were willing to form alliances and trade. Why lose the knowledge they could share with the rest of Humanity?"**

"I'm guessing someone didn't like that idea and forced them to kill them all," Mercury guessed. Heh, way too easy. "Imperium being assholes, Remnant being too weak to fight them… PAM! No more Xenos. Makes more sense than a psychotic genocidal murderer being put in charge of the entire army…"

"Not when the world is ruled by Grimm," replied Weiss.

"And what if in the future, someone with a Semblance that allows them to control the Grimm is born?" Salem cut in, anger barely hidden under her annoyance. "Or maybe some new technology? Dust use? Hunters could kill way more people than Grimm, so eventually it's how you use your resources what makes you good or evil."

"A sword and a chainsaw both kill, but it's clear the latter if more cruel than the former," Weiss countered, recalling her fight with the White Fang on the train.

"Chainsaws are used to cut down trees, though," Salem had the answer ready. She'd had the same argument with people before – not everyone was so eager to work alongside Grimm, after all. "Eventually, they are just tools. Just like the Grimm, if one could control them. They are soulless and mindless, just like weapons. It's the hand that wields them what matters."

"Well, someone called _Queen of the Grimm_ can't really be all that good. Or her sons the_ Siege Breaker_, the _Fire Lord_, the _War Titan_ and the _Warlord_." Yang smirked at her own argument, thinking it undefeatable.

"Titles mean nothing," shrugged Salem. "They could just be used for intimidating their enemies. A lot of 'good' people use terror tactics on the battlefield."

**"****What happened?" a student asked.**

**"****Documents state that he was given an ultimatum by the Imperium, purge the sector of all Xenos races…" She sighed, she didn't like this part of the documents, " Or be purged along with them, at the time we were still a fledgling interstellar Kingdom. Barely taking our galactic steps and our Military was not as strong as it is now. We would have been easily wiped out in a war against The Imperium. So Lord Nokris made a decision to ensure our Kingdom's survival. Thus began the Genocidal campaign against all Xenos races within our Sector. It was during this Campaign that youngest of the Ten earned his title "The World Ender" and Lord Nokris making it customary that he be the first to the battle.." She concluded, all her students were silent. **

"Wow, so cheerful," Yang snarked. "Now we have a _World Ender_? What next, the _Angel of Death_ or _Bane of Life_? What about _Apocalypse_, _Armageddon_ or _Annihilator_?"

Salem felt her eye twitch.

"It was a necessary evil," Cinder stated grimly, less angry than her mistress but still annoyed. "He took the path that wouldn't lead to the death of all his people. Not only that, but the Imperium would've just destroyed Remnant _and_ those Xenos worlds. He just chose to save his people. You can't be selfless when you're risking other people's lives."

"But if the Imperium valued humanity so much, why are there Faunus in 'our' army?" Blake spoke up, actually posing a good question instead of just raining hate down on the future.

"Maybe we convinced them it was all part of our Semblances," Pyrrha offered. "Or maybe they counted them as humans anyway because they still mostly looked human. Maybe these Xenos are radically different from us."

"That's probably the most likely to happen," Ren nodded alongside her. "I doubt we'd manage to convince them – they'd just take some DNA samples and examine them."

**"****We must make hard decisions, ones that we may not agree with or go against our moral codes but we have to make them. Their outcome could be life or death." Thara spoke, breaking the silence. **

**"****You are correct Thara, he made a decision and he must forever live with it but because of it, our Kingdom is what is now. But to make things less gloomy, Lord Nokris was chosen to be the next chapter master after Lord Arc's death because of the fact that the two grew up together in a village not far from here. Its known that the two were close, even closer than the others, Lord Nokris does credit Lord Arc for his skills in strategies since the two were known to hunt down Bandits near the dark lands borders centuries ago." **

"Real bandits, or imaginary bandits?" Nora joked with a smile, recalling the little snippet with 'Sir Jaune' in the first dream.

"Probably both at different times," Emerald replied flatly.

"Am I the only one who finds the image of a six-year-old Jaune fighting off imaginary bandits adorable?" Yang asked just as smiling as Nora.

"You're right, it'd be very cute," Pyrrha nodded, eyes twinkling at the thought.

"Never been good with children but I guess he was cute," Ruby admitted. Being still just out of childhood herself, it made sense for her not to be really good with other children. She had to be kept an eye on too.

"Makes sense, since you're gonna marry the guy, to find him cute," Mercury snorted teasingly, making her blush in both embarrassment and resignation.

"I don't like him like that!"

**"****Okay, now what is Lord Nokris's Grimm mount?"**

**Mauve raised her hand, the professor raising an eyebrow at that. "Miss Altan, go ahead." **

**"****It was The Dragon Grimm, its said that Lord Nokris tamed the creature during the Liberation of Vale when he helped his wife, Lady Cinder, take the Fall Maiden's powers that the Wizard was trying to harness." Mauve answered, a smug look on her face as Maze and Thara giggled. The Look on the Professor's face was priceless. Mauve was known as a slacker so hearing this really took her by surprise. **

"Fall Maiden's powers?" repeated Yang. "Like the fairytale?"

"Maybe it's a codename for something else," Weiss offered. It wouldn't be too strange. "I mean, I don't think 'Wizard' is a real name anyway."

"It's possible," nodded Salem, all the while enjoying how pale Cinder had gotten at hearing 'Lady Cinder'. "Cinder, my dear, is something the matter? It's gonna happen in a few centuries, I doubt you are the 'Lady Cinder' they spoke of. It seems that our times will be quite famous…"

"But wait, Lord Nokris was Jaune's friend and he's still alive?!" Nora suddenly remembered.

"Gods I'm so stupid, I totally forgot to ask him!" Yang slapped his face.

"We can agree on that," Mercury mumbled under his breath, feeling just as stupid. The guy had literally been four feet away during lunch and no one had thought of asking him if he knew Nokris! "Uh, maybe it's a descendant? I mean, maybe Nokris is the family name."

"That… actually makes sense," Weiss nodded. After all, Lord Nokris implied that Nokris was the last name.

"Though then why this 'Cinder' was called by her first name?" asked Yang.

"Because women receive titles differently. It's not so uncommon for them to use their first names instead of their family ones, especially if they are married and have to take their husband's name," Salem replied effortlessly.

**"****Uh, Yes exactly what happened. Very good miss Atlan." the Professor said. She typed into her scroll as an image of a massive Winged Dragon Grimm appeared. "The Wyvern or Dragon Grimm is an ancient and powerful breed of Grimm, with only four of them having been found and all under the control of Lord Nokris. The one Lord Nokris uses has been with him since he tamed it, its stated that it slumbers under the Queen's castle only to be awakened when major wars are declared." she finished.**

**"****Miss Sustrai, you said that they were born not far from here. Where is it exactly?"**

"Jaune's village is actually pretty far from here," Pyrrha sighed in relief. "Which means this future probably won't happen. Jaune probably never had a friend called Nokris."

Back in Remnant, Jaune sneezed, waking up suddenly, before shrugging and going back to sleep.

"Remember, in this future we can travel through space," Emerald shot back. "A few thousands miles becomes nothing compared to the space between planets."

"Well, to be honest, we don't actually know how far planets are one from the other," Weiss countered with a slight frown. "We've never been in space so we can only observe and make hypothesis."

**"****Ah, well it was a small village near the ruins of an old castle. Though I cannot say anymore, we must move on to the others but I promise we will get back to that." she answered. She smiled a bit as she brought up Ares. "Okay, we have time for two more, Ares will be next and I will let you all vote on the next one." **

**"****Huh, wonder why she doesn't refer to him as Lord Ares?" Mauve whispered to her friends. Thara shrugged, she went back to doodling on her note book.**

Everyone exchanged glances, then promptly shrugged and went back to watching. It wasn't really worth thinking about.

**"****Ares, the War titan. The 4th born of Salem. He is considered the most powerful of all Salem's son due to his size and strength. Imperial Guardsmen even refer to him as a Tank on legs." She continued as an image of Ares popped up. "Ares is considered the most Volatile of the ten, due to his tendency to fight without any support and his preference for close quarter combat. He's also known to always rush into battle without much of a plan." she told them.**

Team RWB and NPR turned to look at Yang, who frowned. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" she exclaimed, eyes red, proving their point in being volatile. There wasn't any need to prove the point about fighting recklessly and running headlong into danger.

"Strange, you'd think they'd be in order of strength from the firstborn to the tenth born," Emerald wondered out loud.

"Maybe he's the most powerful only in terms of physical fitness and combat skills?" shrugged Mercury. "Dunno, maybe that Nokris has special weapons or a broken Semblance and so on that make him stronger than Ares."

"Wow, making an intelligent remark? How shocking," the green-haired thief mocked him.

Mercury ignored her. He was far too used to her anyway.

**"****Ma'am, why is Lord Ares huge compared to the others?"**

**"****Ah well before he was a Primaris Marine, Ares was actually the smallest and sickly of the ten, but after going through the first procedures to become a Marine, a mutation occurred. Ares not only became the strongest but the mutation caused him to grow immensely, the reasons behind this are left up to debate but like a said, a mutation most likely." She cleared her throat as she continued on. "Now, Ares is known to others outside our Kingdom as a bloodthirsty monster that shows now remorse for his actions and delights in the suffering of others. None of that is true, we know Ares is in fact called the War titan because he truly embodies war itself but only to our enemies. Only to those that would bring harm to our kingdom, our people, our Queen and...his family." The final words got quite confused looks. Maze raised her hand, catching the professor's attention.**

"Went from underdog to top dog, not bad," commented Yang.

"He looks so huge, hard to believe he could ever have been small," Nora chuckled.

"Looks can be deceiving," replied Ren, knowing fully well that Nora, the shortest and second-lightest of the eight of them was also one of the strongest. Second-lightest after Weiss since her… ahem… _assets_ added quite a bit of weight the heiress lacked. "Though I must admit I'm curious about the others by now. This looks like some kind of exposition of the Ten Sons of Salem."

"Huh, you're right, it kinda does," Ruby nodded, tilting her head to the side like a curious puppy. "Wonder why's that…"

"I assume Lord Khor wanted us to know about the Ten before showing us more of their actions," Salem interjected easily, her anger at them now cooling down since they stopped insulting her future children. Well, possible future children.

"That's actually very probable," Blake agreed. Neo nodded as well, much to people's surprise. Thus far she hadn't acted like one to be interested in such topics.

**"****Ma'am, I'm curious but you sound like you're close to Lord Ares." she had hoped that didn't come off as rude or too invasive. **

**"****Of course I am, He's my grandfather after all." She mentioned, going back to her scroll and not paying attention to the looks of everyone. **

"That… is not as shocking as I think it should've been," Weiss commented in a deadpan.

"Well, it's good to know that being the descendant of someone known for his bloodlust and violence, she is quite level-headed," Ren remarked, slightly impressed. "Though maybe he changes around his family…"

**"****WHAT!?" most yelled, this caused her to raise an eyebrow at them. **

**"****Miss Sustrai, are you serious?" a student lamented. The only three not having a meltdown her Mauve, Thara, and Maze. Thara had told them that their teacher, Raye Sustrai was Ares descadent.**

"Sustrai? Emerald, are you telling me you're gonna bang that guy? He'd probably break you in two if he tried to-"

_Smack_.

"OW!" Mercury held his hurting head where Yang had just punched him. "What the hell, Blondie? I wasn't even talking to you!"

"No, but my little sister is here and she does not need to hear what you were gonna say!" Yang exclaimed, eyes red and hair aflame. "So watch your mouth around Ruby!"

"And we found out Xiao Long's actually Ares's secret daughter," Neo whispered to Cinder, who smirked. It did fit quite well…

Emerald grinned. She didn't really agree with the blonde, but seeing Mercury being smacked down a peg or two always made her happy.

**"****Oh? I didn't mention it before did i?" she sighed, "Ares is my grandfather, I'm actually one of his descendants but he doesn't like that word as in his exact words "You're still my precious granddaughter." she told them, remembering how her Grandfather would always pat her head lightly and give her a smile. He was always like that with all his grandchildren. "Now back to the lesson, Ares rose to become the War titan during the liberation of Vacou and conquering half of the Sanus continent during the "Old War". He was given the War Titan title after the conquering due to his actions." the Students listened, despite still shocked by the fact their Professor was a descendant of Lord Ares. "Theo, what is Ares Grimm mount?"**

"Just as I thought," Ren nodded, confirming his own earlier assumption. "When he is with his family, he is far from the bloodthirsty warrior he is in battle."

"Though I'm starting to think that those 'Sons of Salem' might've been bioengineered to be immortal or something," Weiss added, much to everyone's shock. "It's too much of a coincidence – first Cinder, now Emerald? Possibly Salem? It's clear something doesn't add up. Aside Salem, Cinder and Emerald haven't appeared, only their descendants, same for Ruby. Maybe they died centuries ago while the Sons of Salem, and Salem, found a way to rejuvenate their bodies, maybe one of those new technologies that do no rely on Dust."

Everyone stared at her, shocked by her reasoning, and she huffed, cheeks red. "It's just the most logical explanation. Or are you telling me they discovered _magic_ and became immortal sorcerers walking through the ages or something?"

Salem almost laughed. If they were her sons, then yes, it was probably that.

**"****I-its an abnormally large Ursa Alpha ma'am!' the boy answered as he tried to avoid her gaze.**

**"****Good, But you are both right and wrong. You see while it is an Ursa its real classification is an Ursa Titan. The Ursa Titans are actually the Alphas of the Alphas. They are known to hide themselves and rarely leave their dens but when they do? Whole villages used to be decimated overnight by these creatures." An image of the Ursa Titan was projected, slowly rotating to show off the creature and its armor. "While the exact specifications are classified, you can see Ares had armor attached to the Ursa, making it much more durable. The Claws here appear to be retrofitted lightning claws, and a massive twin barreled turret on top, effectively making this creature more deadly." she finished, everyone amazed by how more closely they are seeing the Ursa Titan. Sure they've seen it during Holovids or during the parades but to learn this much about it?**

"How to make a Grimm even more deadly, also known as Grimm Improvement 101," Neo deadpanned, which got a laugh out of almost everyone.

**"****How did Lord Ares even tame such a creature?"**

**"****Oh, he told us he simply found it one day and fought it bare handed." she answered flatly. Much to the disbelief of everyone. "Now, i said we will vote on the next Son, please use your scrolls and vote for the next one." Sounds of pings coming from scrolls filled the classroom as Professor Sustrai simply drank from her mug until she heard a ping. "Alright, Looks like Lord Karn is next." she heard quite a few quiet "yes" coming from her students as an image of Lord Karn popped up on screen. His helmet was fashioned into that of a Deathstalker with a few scratches on the helmet. The optics of his helmet glowed a threatening red instead of orange. **

"Wait a second, Ares _brawled_ with that Ursa and won?!" Yang exclaimed in wide-eyed disbelief. "Are you kidding me?!"

"Yang, these Sons of Salem have proven to be far stronger than any other Hunter we've ever seen," Pyrrha replied uneasily. "It's not impossible for them to be even stronger than their mounts…"

"Except for Arc, who got the strongest Grimm ever," Mercury pointed out. "And the teach said Nokris owned _four_ Grimm Dragons, which should mean he's stronger than all four combined, which I hardly find to be believable. Either the story is exaggerated, or the Ursa isn't all _that_ strong."

As much as Salem wanted to defend her 'sons', Mercury had a point. It was really unlikely for them to be actually stronger than their mounts.

**"****Lord Karn, the Sword of Salem and 8th born of Salem." she stated. "Now class, who can tell me one of many events that Lord Karn is known for?"**

**"****Lord Karn is known for hunting down and exterminating the ancient White Fang extremists." a student answered. **

"Oh joy," Blake mumbled, unenthusiastically. "Now the racist oppressor…"

"The White Fang isn't exactly a happy bunch of peaceful protesters…" Emerald noted with a sweat-drop. Mercury and Neo both agreed with her, surprisingly. They were assassins, but they could see the idiocy of the White Fang.

When one fought violence with violence, it was one thing. But when one fought worldwide spread violence, hatred and discrimination with mindless violence and acts of terrorism meant to create fear, and everyone knew people hated what they feared, well that one was obviously insane or very very stupid.

"They're just misguided Faunus trying to improve their poor life conditions!"

Second case.

"Hey, in Menagerie they live pretty fine, yet that's where the White Fang comes from," Mercury shot back. An assassin's work included information gathering, and let it never be said Mercury Black wasn't a good assassin. "In Vale, discrimination is minor. There is some discrimination in Mistral, a bit more than Vale, though Haven's Headmaster is a freaking _Faunus_, so not that much. Vacuo, no one gives a damn if you have animal ears or if you are a cannibal, they never care about anything. If there is one place the White Fang should be present and active in, it should be Atlas – yet there's not a single member there. Not so misguided if they attack literally everyone but the one making things worse for the Faunus."

Blake bristled, but Weiss put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Vale and Mistral aren't free of discrimination though. It makes sense for the White Fang to start small before attacking a huge target such as Atlas."

Mercury scoffed, already no more interested. "Oh whatever."

**"****Correct, the ancient White Fang extremists were all wiped out. The Organization's original leaders, Sienna Khan and Ghira Belladonna were allowed to reform the organization and ensure extreme views never rose again. Thus helped Queen Salem easily usher in equality for the Faunus. The Organization has a strong presence still to this day thanks to the Belladonna royalty. But, tell me Class what is Lord Karn's two other official name? The ones used for our home sector?"**

The bad guys had to resist the sudden and almost unbearable urge to cheer and tell the good guys to go choke on their prejudices' dick.

"It seems that this 'Salem', or future me I guess we could call her, is not as evil as you thought she was," Salem commented slyly, glancing at the students with a small smirk.

"Fine, I guess slaughtering everyone who opposes you and then rule the world can make a good difference. She basically used the White Fang's methods, only much bloodier," Blake replied, refusing to change her mind.

Cinder gritted her teeth at the cat Faunus's arrogance and hypocrisy. One moment she was calling the White Fang misled, the next she condemned their methods. Just to 'be always right' regarding their topic. It was infuriating. Especially coming from someone who must've not even known what discrimination meant, since she was literally the princess of Menagerie. She was so inexperienced with fighting racism that she didn't even think of changing her name, which was an _extremely_ famous name _very closely_ associated with Faunus and the White Fang. Also, Belladonna wasn't a very 'hide in plain sight' kind of name either.

**"****Ma'am, Lord Karn is known as the hero of Mantle and leads the Remnant guard Regiment known as the Mantle Guard." Thara answered.**

**"****What is the other?" she looked at her class, a hand shot up.**

**"****Mauve."**

**"****Lord Karn's other official name is one that to this day, still sparks fear in those descendants of the Ancient kingdom of Atlas. Lord Karn is known as "The Butcher of Atlas."**

The students all fell silent at such a title.

Mercury, meanwhile, smirked, as did Neo. Neither liked those rich assholes from Atlas. Being assassins, they knew that more than seventy percent of a good assassin's income was of Atlasian origin. While they appreciated the pay, the stupid political reasons for why they were hired disgusted the two assassins. At least they didn't go on preaching peace while hiding a rifle behind their back. The two-facedness required to be an Atlasian politician was just plain horrid.

**"****You are correct, I will elaborate as to why he is known as such." She pressed a button on her scroll as various images of Atlas appeared, the ancient kingdom. Some showing off the the sprawling floating city, its beautiful white aesthetic buildings. Various large airships resembling the ones that Remnant guard use to guard their sector from invaders were seen floating in the sky near the city. Skyscrapers kissing the sky as images showed people in white uniforms, a stark contrast of the black and red uniforms and officer coats used by the Remnant Guard officers. "Atlas was once a sprawling kingdom, having been the most technologically advanced kingdom in Remnant at the time. The Kingdom floated high in the sky above, safe from most forms of Grimm but left those who lived in Mantle at their mercy." she said, a hint of Venom in her tone. "The Atlasians believed themselves better than the "Common folk" that lived below. While the Atlasians enjoyed peace, prospered, and lived a mostly worry free life, those in Mantle did not. This harbored a deep hatred for those who lived in the city below, especially the treatment of the workers at the hands of the SDC helped stroke the flames more. But it proved their downfall." she pressed a button and the images were replaced with new ones. **

People winced at how the Atlasians were described, Weiss more than anyone. "Is it really so bad they even think of rest of Mantle not even being the same Kingdom as Atlas?" Ruby asked, a bit afraid of what answer she might be given.

"Not officially… it's more of a matter of money," Weiss replied slowly, thinking her words carefully. "Atlas is far from cheap. The truth is that Atlas isn't racist, it simply discriminates against those without money – and Faunus rarely do. That's why a wealthy Faunus can easily go to Atlas Academy or join the military, even though Atlas is infamous for its treatment of Faunus."

She took a breath and slowly exhaled. "To live in Atlas, one has to spend every year, more or less what the low-average Hunter gains in two or three years. Just the rent, or Oum forbids buying a house. Food, electricity, water and everything else is another load of costs on top of that. Above-average Hunters can live in Atlas, though barely, and once you start living there you start getting connections which either crush you or lift you up in ranking. Those without money can only dream of living there, and they live in the continent below – Mantle. _Aus den Augen, aus dem Sinn_. Since the Atlasian barely ever interact with those of Mantle, they don't care."

"And here I thought you were cold…" Yang winced, trying to lighten the situation and failing horribly at that.

"I am actually the anomaly," Weiss confided. "My father called me a disgrace more than once because I couldn't fake the indifference and cold façade Atlasians are famous for."

Everyone who never met an Atlasian other than Weiss exchanged glances. Weiss already was an Ice Queen, Atlasians must've been heartless to be so much worse…

**The time stamp showing they were recent, the oldest being only five years. The beautiful city was gone, replaced by ruined and destroyed buildings. The landscape was littered with small craters and the skyscrapers that once kissed the sky were gone, some having collapsed while others had the airships from earlier sticking out of them, having crash landed into the city. The white landscape was blackened and dirty, a far cry from what they saw earlier. Wreckages of crashed Smaller fighter-transports could be seen, most having crashed into the buildings or streets. One picture popped up, showing the skeletal remains of Atlas soldiers on the streets. Some looked as if they were torn to pieces while others were crumbling to dust. **

"Well, I guess there is no need to hate Atlas any more, it's gone," Neo stated callously, earning herself some glares while people looked uneasy at the sight of the coprses. "What? Everyone knows Atlas is a gigantic load of shit in human form. _They_ cause the Great War. _They_ caused the Faunus Rights Revolution because they didn't respect the equality laws. _They_ treat everyone like dirt. _They_ think themselves above everyone else. _They_ have always had dreams of ruling the entire world. _They_ control over fifty-five and more percent of the world's trade, and over ninety percent of the Dust trade on a worldwide level. It's not like people don't have reasons to want them out of the way…"

"So you're just overlooking the murder of thousands of people?!" Weiss exclaimed, outraged and disgusted.

Neo shrugged. "Hey, I kinda doubt Mantle was involved since they hates Atlas's guts too. So it's not like the innocent people were killed – only the bastards that make others suffer."

Ugh, being a goodie-two-shoes was such a pain…

**"****Woah, look Atlesian knights! Look like the mech suits that the Remnant guard use!" **

**"****Atlas had started the Old War, when the Imperium had left after establishing their presence and legitimizing Queen Salem's rule, the kingdoms united under the Atlas banner. Thinking they could overthrow our Queen and ensure our people would be ruled by them with Imperial blessings. It was even stated that the Wizard helped form this alliance." she paused for a moment, pressing more buttons and switching out the pictures for a video. "This Video comes from an Ancient Atlesian soldier's helmet, it was found when the archives were raided, please watch."**

"I'm not sure I want to watch this…" Weiss said uneasily.

"I'm almost sure you will regret watching it later," Mercury shot back. "But it's not like we can avoid it… you tested it earlier, didn't you? It's a watch-or-watch situation."

"Yeah, but you don't need to be such an ass about it." As usual, Emerald was the one to retort.

_**"Oh gods. Please dear brother gods, save us. Please!" the soldier pleaded, looking out the small window of the basement in the building he was hiding in. It was street level and he could see the soldiers known as the Remnant Guard walking around, weapons at the ready. The Buildings around them were burning as the sounds of gunshots and screams filled the air. He could hear the sounds of Grimm and fighting as well. He looked as he saw a faunus Remnant Guard officer donned only in light armor and heavy trench coat giving orders to those soldiers that were in the Mantle army. "Gods, why did they betray us? Isn't this their home too?" he whispered to himself as the Mantle soldiers saluted and walked off. They had discarded any symbols of their former loyalty to Atlas, having replaced them with Remnant Guard symbol and their queen. Then he saw movement in the corner of his eye, an atlas soldier. He was clutching his side, as he slowly crawled towards one of the broken basement windows.**_

Again, the students winced at how brutal the scene was. True, war was war no matter where it took place, but it was never pleasant to see.

Cinder frowned. She hoped it would show more of how Lord Karn conquered Atlas, not just the view a puny little soldier had before dying. She wanted to take some notes.

Salem was just impassive. She knew what would happen, and she really didn't care.

**_"Liam! Cmon on, just go slow." he mouthed to the wounded soldier. The soldier would stop, pretending to be dead if noticed anyone coming near him. He crawled as carefully as he could. He was close. The soldier watched as he did. Something slammed into his, piercing his armor as it raised him up, a massive stinger protruding out of his chest as the soldier watched in horror as he was slowly raised up. Liam screamed in agony as blood escaped his mouth. The soldier watched as massive Death Stalker walked into the view, the biggest he had ever seen. The creature had massive claws, heavily armored in both its natural chitin and metallic purple glowing armor as well. He watched as the massive stinger still holding his friend simply tossed him into a nearby building. The soldier looked at the massive deathstalker and saw its rider, sitting on a large two barreled gatling weapon. A heavily armored giant with a slightly flapping quote._**

Again with the winces. However, Cinder spoke up. "And so Lord Karn, 'the Sword of Salem', rides an Ancient Deathstalker improved with armour and a Gatling gun."

"So it would seem," Salem nodded pensively. The only reason why she'd never tried to arm the Grimm was that people would immediately know someone was behind it, and she wanted to keep the Grimm as a 'natural' army of monsters for as long as she could. It helped her a lot when people weren't being paranoid.

_**"Its Karn!" the soldier whispered fearfully.**_

_**Karn stood up, looking back as he raised his arm and then extended it forward. "March! Atlas is nearly fallen, Don't allow their actions to go unpunished! We will reclaim the relic and get our vengeance!" he yelled as the soldiers saw him sit back down as the massive Deathstalker walked forward, a mix of dozens of Remnant Guard and Mantle soldiers could be seen, various forms of Grimm marching with them. The Soldier ducked down, thinking one saw him. He breathed heavily. He heard something next to him, coming from the darkness. He looked, only to have a centipede like Grimm immediately lunge at him as he screamed, cutting off the camera.**_

And cue final wince from the audience. "That was brutal," Nora said uneasily. She liked violence, but only when it was in a spar or well-deserved! That was just unjustified.

"Well, Atlas did try to take over the world," Cinder noted.

"Yes, to free it from the oppression of the Queen of the Grimm!" Ruby exclaimed, coming to the defence of her friend.

"Whose son you marry."

"S-Shut up Mercury!"

"She's right, shut up," Emerald grinned, only to be ignored once again.

**"****It took Lord Karn a single day to decimate Atlas. The Atlesian military had sought to use the Mantle army for their defense, thinking they could keep the fighting down below. But they were wrong, the Mantle army, having long accepted Queen Salem's rule and Lord Karn, turned on the Atlesians at a crucial moment. Allowing our army to easily take down the city and its people." she told them. "Now before anyone asks, Lord Karn did not slaughter the civilians, only those that fought back. Atlas Civilians; Women, children, the old and sickly were spared. Any that fought back however were not. He helped the refugees had a safe passage and thought it took sometime, they eventually settled in Mantle."**

"Typical arrogant rich men behaviour," Emerald spat. Like every other orphan thieving in the streets, she'd been poor, and she hated those with money with a passion. "Think that everyone _has_ to do as they say and be loyal to them even if they treat them like shit."

_'Like you are to Cinder?'_ Mercury thought, clearly noticing the irony of her words.

"Not everyone who has money is evil," Weiss tried to protest, even though in her experience, money and empathy was a rare match-up. "True, most people in Atlas are cold and money is their priority, but-"

"But what? As Neo said earlier, all the large-scale conflicts in Remnant's history were caused by Atlas and its expansionist mindset," Emerald countered venomously. "Mistral is known for being very calm with their politics. Calling Vacuo mild would be an understatement. And while Vale can be turbulent at times, it's nothing compared to the continuous plots and conspiracies going on in Atlas."

"Emerald, stop. You're letting your personal experience with Atlasians cloud your mind," Cinder barked sharply, making her shut up instantly. Cinder turned to Team RWBY and NPR. "I apologize for her behaviour. She does not have the best history with people from Atlas – Weiss excluded, of course. Atlas may not have cause all the conflicts in the past like she said, but she does have a point when she calls them arrogant." She smiled slightly. "Though I disagree, dear Emerald – rich people are usually paranoid. They wouldn't trust anyone, not unless they had a reason to do so."

**"****So why is Atlas still there ma'am and why go about destroying it?" **

**" ****I can't answer your second question but as for the first; Lord Karn left it standing there, a reminder and warning for those that would try to usurp our Queen and disrupt our peace. Atlas is no longer habitable, the city is now crawling with Knuckleeve, Apathy, and Plague Grimm. To ensure none could ever return and bring back the city." she explained. "Mantle now thrives as Lord Karn is its current ruler. The crater under Atlas is now the Scientific and industrial manufacturer capital of our system. Because of the discoveries there, dust has slowly become solely for civilian use rather than military. The SDC has ensured of that." **

"What's a Plague Grimm?" asked Ruby. "Also, why is the SDC still standing if Atlas was destroyed?"

Unsurprisingly, it was Salem who answered the first question. "The Plague Grimm were caused the Black Plague over six centuries ago. The Black Plague was a fatal disease with almost a hundred percent chances of killing the victim. It started when a group of Hunters came in contact with some Grimm covered in dirt of unknown origin. That filth carried the first germs. The disease quickly spread, though the use of Dust to purify air, foods and objects greatly limited it, saving countless lives." Salem hid a grimace, remembering when she herself caught the disease, and how it had killed all her underlings at the time. "This disease, oddly, afflicted the Grimm as well, and thousands upon thousands of Grimm died to it. However, this is believed to have led to the creation of a Grimm, called Plague, that infects the host. It is a parasite and the host suffers from the same symptoms of the Black Plague, only sped up. A surgery is needed to remove the Grimm, but once removed, the symptoms stop immediately."

"Well, we now know why in the future she's Queen of the Grimm," Yang snorted. "She knows _everything_ about them!"

"No I do not – I am just an expert," Salem replied somewhat haughtily.

"As for the second, the SDC means Schnee Dust Company. After Atlas was destroyed, it probably changed to Salem Dust Company, same logo," Weiss answered the second question, stopping an argument before it could start.

**"****Ma'am I'm confused, wasn't the SDC Atlesian? Weren't they know for their cruelty towards their Faunus workers?"**

**"****The SDC was spared, in part due to Lord Karn stating that the Schnees were not be harmed as they hadn't participated in the alliance. Though strangely their dust was used extensively but Lord Karn stated only the true Schnee bloodline was to be saved, that a foolish man who thought himself a Schnee was killed personally by Lord Karn. The SDC has long since moved past its dark past and has become a beacon of science and discovery that benefit all in the Remnant sector." **

Everyone looked at Weiss, who gave no sign of happiness nor hurt. Inwardly, she was saddened to hear her father had died. It shouldn't had to have come to that point. Yet again, they were talking about Grimm. She knew deaths and Grimm went hand in hand.

**"****What kind of Gr-" but the student stopped as the bell rang. **

**"****And that's class, please know that we will continue this lesson again but for now, please enjoy your weekend." she told them all as they began to leave the class. She sat down, going back to her scroll and adjust her lesson plans for next week. She watched as Maze and Mauve looked at their leader, who had dozed off. Mauve simply picked her up and carried her bridal style out of the classroom as their slept away. "Maybe I should inform her mother of this." she thought but brushed it aside. Her scroll immediately began to shake vibrate violently as she saw a breaking news bulletin, "The Battle Fleets of Lord Onyx, Lord Ares, Lord Malach, and Lord Karn have returned home." She smiled as she gathered her things and left the classroom. She knew her grandfather would be home later tonight so she wanted to be home to greet him.**

"She really is your descendant. Yours, and that dunce's," Weiss sighed at seeing the Arc-Rose girl, Thara, asleep on her desk even if she could swear she'd been awake not two minutes earlier. It was a miracle that girl hadn't been expelled yet with such improper behaviour.

Yet again, in Beacon pretty much everyone did as they wished and as long as it wasn't Goodwitch the teacher and they didn't disrupt the lesson, no one told them off. Joke was on them once they got the exams.

"Weiss, not you too!" Ruby exclaimed, flustered, embarrassed and more than a little exasperated. "I. Don't. Like. Jaune. That. Way!"

"Not right now, but you totally bang him later," Mercury smirked before dodging Yang's punches. "What, Blondie, jealous of your sister?"

That made Yang stop.

Only to start rolling on the floor laughing, much to everyone's annoyance. Jaune's friends, because it was pretty offensive. The others, because she was just exaggerating.

"Sorry, sorry," she wheezed as soon as she could speak. "It's just… Vomit Boy and me? Totally not compatible. Vomit Boy and my sister? Yeah. Me? Ha. He wouldn't be able to keep up with me."

Ruby was about to complain she didn't like Jaune for the umpteenth time, or tell her sister not to be a jerk to Jaune, or both, but something happened before she could.

Everything vanished.

The landscape around them darkened and then warped back into the Beacon cafeteria, but it was still blurry, unfocused.

"What the-" Not expecting the sudden change, the students almost stumbled before remembering they were in a dream and not on solid ground. "What happened?"

"_**I must admit, it's both amusing and irritating to see how you stubbornly cling to the beliefs you've set yourself and how you blind yourself to the truth just to preserve those beliefs and prejudices,**_" Lord Khor's voice rang out in the empty room, making them jump a little bit. "_**I just wanted to give you a little piece of advice. Or rather, a saying. 'Always basing**_ _**your assumptions exclusively on what you know only works if you are constantly trying to expand your knowledge.' This being said, goodnight! Or should I say, good day?**_"

And once again, they woke up, rather suddenly, back in their beds at Beacon and in the Grimmlands, respectively.


	3. Chapter 3

**_And here I am! I'm still alive! Somewhat! Probably. Oh well. As usual, commission from azuring-galaxy, story by Mika, and for Mika._**

**_Enjoy!_**

That morning, in CMNE's dormitory, a tense silence reigned.

Cinder hadn't even bothered to change out of her nightwear, instead choosing to start pacing around the room, muttering to herself about calling Salem or not. Mercury and Emerald were both just sitting on their beds, watching her fret over the dream, while Neo had gone out to just enjoy her morning spying in the boy's showers, or so she said.

"It cannot be a coincidence, and by now I doubt it could even have been one to begin with," the Fall Maiden reasoned to herself. "But if it is not a coincidence, then what is the reason behind these episodes? Are they really merely to show us something? I cannot accept that – it's too simple an answer."

"Well, why not try to call your boss then?" Mercury offered with a shrug, knowing better than to use Salem's name right under Ozpin's nose. "It'd be way easier than just trying to figure it out yourself."

"I'm sure Cinder can handle this," Emerald snapped, shooting him a venomous glare. And this time, it wasn't even because she enjoyed it – it was merely because he'd just implied Cinder wasn't smart enough to know.

"No, Emerald, he is right." It looked like it almost physically hurt her to say that. "I cannot solve this on my own. Not when she is involved as well. I will call her…"

Mercury shot Emerald a 'told you' look, to which she replied by intensifying her glare, before turning back to their boss. "So… how are you gonna put it, anyway? _Oh, hey boss, I was thinking, what the hell could this 'Lord Khor' want with us? Especially now of all times?_ I'm sure that'd go well."

"Silence, Mercury," Cinder quieted him with a motion of her hand, and he shut up dutifully. "Our boss is not unreasonable. She will understand that this is something no one could've predicted, and that we have to move with caution. We cannot risk moving without being sure of what's going on."

She fished out of her Scroll and sighed before choosing the contact she despised the most.

_"Ambrose Medic speaking. How can I help you?"_

Cinder gritted her teeth at the odious voice. Even when he was in disguise, in case someone had gotten a hold of her Scroll, she hated him. "Watts, it's me. I need to speak with her. Now."

She heard a chuckle over the line. _"I'm afraid the Mistress is busy at the moment, Cinder."_

"She'll make time. This is important, and regards her as well. Tell her it's about Lord Khor."

_"Lord Khor? Have you found a-"_

"Don't you dare finish that sentence, Watts, or I swear I'll burn your hair _and_ your moustache off." If there was anything she could actually use against him, was his care for his moustache. Something about keeping the same style of an old friend or something like that – something too sentimental for her liking.

_"…"_

"So?"

Watts sighed on the Scroll. _"I will ask the Mistress to call you back as soon as possible. However, I can-"_

She hung up. She'd gotten what she wanted – everything else was unneeded. And she surely wouldn't sit through Watts's voice any more seconds than she strictly needed to.

She resumed her nervous pacing as the other two occupants of the room kept watching her. After only a few minutes, her Scroll began to ring. Despite all his doubtfulness, apparently Watts had realized it wasn't something trivial and had informed Salem right away.

Cinder took the call with a nervousness she would later deny. "Mistress?"

_"Speak, child. Why did you call me? Two days in a row, nonetheless."_

"It's… about the plan, mistress. These past two dreams were unexpected, and if what Lord Khor said is true, then we can expect another one to happen tonight," Cinder began. "He hasn't explained a lot, and I fear that even if we asked, he wouldn't answer us – but I fear these dreams might ruin our plan. If the dreams show our future, and the future mentions our plan to make Beacon fall… the students might react accordingly and throw a wench in the plan."

_"I see. And I must say, dear Cinder, that I fully agree. It would be foolish to try and ignore this new complication, not to mention dangerous. You have my permission to stop your plan for as long as you think is necessary, and in case retreat altogether to try another time."_ There was a short pause, as if Salem were to be weighting the odds. _"Although this experience might also be used to bring you closer to those close-minded students. I must say, thus far you've been doing a fairly lackluster job at befriending them. Emerald might be on friendly terms with them, but that is due to their easy trust, not to Emerald's efforts. Use this to your advantage."_

Cinder nodded, not before shooting Emerald a glare, which she answered by looking down slightly. "Yes, mistress. I will. Is there anything else?"

_"You were the one to call me, Cinder. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?"_

"Well… it's about Lord Khor," Cinder admitted with a sigh. "I just cannot fathom why would he choose us, specifically, right now of all times. And why would he bring all those students _except_ the one who shapes the future to that extent? He said he wasn't asked to, but I can only imagine another, equally powerful being to be able to seek him out to ask him such a question. Especially, because I doubt any entity that is not as powerful as Lord Khor, would know about the future's heroes."

_"You do make a good point with this, but what is your question, exactly?"_

"I have three, mistress. The first is if we can trust him. The second, if you have any idea who or what he might be. And the third… do you think other beings such as him will follow his lead and change the world's events to their whims?"

Salem was silent for a long time after those questions, so long Cinder actually checked her Scroll to see if the call had ended, or if the volume had been muted. Finally, she spoke. _"I do not believe we can trust him, but I think we can trust him to be too powerful to be concerned about us. In a way, we aren't worth betraying. As for who he is, I believe me may be some God I have never heard about, maybe one who took the Brothers' place after they left, and stayed hidden to avoid making their same mistake."_

"And… the third question?"

_"I fear the answer is that I do not know. Perhaps other beings will soon use their magic to influence Remnant, or perhaps Lord Khor is the only one who can do so. He might even have claimed this world as his, and prevented others from reaching it. We have yet to witness a fraction of his power, as thus far he seems to only use dreams and illusions, but anyone able to trap me in a dream must be very powerful. I cannot say how much, however."_

Cinder pursued her lips, paling slightly at how Salem just admitted she didn't know what could happen, or how strong Khor was. "Thank you, mistress. I will… talk to Team RWBY and Team JNPR at lunch. Perhaps they have some ideas."

_"Perhaps. Good luck, my child."_

Cinder ended the call with cold sweat. She was never one to back down, but then again, neither was Salem.

Why was she getting so worked up for a couple of dreams, anyway? Khor was just an illusion they saw while dreaming, and like Weiss had said, there _were_ machines that could do that.

But not to Salem, in the heart of the Grimmlands.

She shook her hand before a soft _ping_ distracted her. She glanced down at her Scroll, frowning when she saw a message from the number 1215174-1181517-234. A very odd number, one that shouldn't be a Scroll number anyway.

Opening the message, she frowned again. It was simply the alphabet, with each letter being paired up with a number. A dreadful thought flashing through her brain, she quickly used the system to try and decode the Scroll number.

Abaeagd-aahaeag, it surely couldn't be. So maybe it was…

12 – L. 15 – O. 17 – R. 4 – D. 11 – K. 8 – H. 23 – X

Cinder's hand trembled slightly as she stared to the Scroll number that just shouldn't exist. She tried calling it, but the number resulted inexistent. As soon as she checked the message again, it was gone as mysteriously as it had arrived.

She'd been texted just while she was starting to doubt Lord Khor was real. She never believed in coincidences.

Setting the Scroll down on her nightstand, she sat on the bed, still shocked, ignoring Emerald's voice calling her name.

In her mind, the number's real message was still clear.

_Lord Khor XD_.

/-/

"So, that was a thing," mumbled Ruby, yawning as Yang and Weiss returned from their match and the team went to the same ramen stand of the day before to cheer them up.

"I can't believe we got paired up with Coco and Yatsu," Yang groaned as she slumped on her seat. "Couldn't we have gotten someone else? I would've even taken Pyrrha's opponents. The rollerblades girl sounded annoying but at least she wouldn't have slaughtered us within the first minute of the fight."

Indeed, the match had been truly awful for the two girls of Team RWBY. Coco and her damn Hyper Semblance had all but removed all cover – and Weiss – from the arena. And when Yang had tried to charge in using her Semblance, Team CFVY's giant had very simply knocked her out with a single swing of his oversized sword.

It had been truly humiliating. Especially because Coco had expressed her disappointment, even though not in front of them, on the match, as she was hoping she'd get a bit more of a challenge.

Her words hadn't meant to be vicious or anything, obviously, but they had still hurt quite a bit.

"I see you are here too," Jaune said with a small frown as he and his team popped up beside them. How they did that, no one really knew since only Ren could be called stealthy. They all sat down wearing apologetic faces. "I'm sorry you girls lost. Though it really wasn't a fair match, Team CFVY is perhaps Beacon's strongest team in their year, possibly of the whole school if they are fourth year like I've heard."

"Way to make us feel better, Jaune," Yang mumbled depressed, moving her noodles around with her chopsticks.

"He's not wrong though," Pyrrha interjected. "You and Weiss are very skilled fighters, but where you've only received a month or two of Beacon's training, Team CFVY has had years to improve, and they have been on a lot of missions to top it off. It is hardly a fair comparison. I doubt I could've defeated those either, just like any other first year."

"I guess we could've, maybe, but we didn't get the chance," another voice spoke up, making them jump. The shopkeeper simply prepared another four lightning-fast as Team CMNE sat down at the booth, crowding it even more. Team RWBY, Ren and Nora were on one side. Pyrrha, Jaune and Team CMNE sat on the other. The booth was definitely full. Mercury immediately began to eat. "We just had to fight those two weirdos…"

Weiss bristled. "Neptune is _not_ a weirdo!"

"You mean it's normal to be terrified of the water yet wearing swimming goggles? And that it's normal to do that 'victory dance' thing he did with the other weirdo?" Mercury smirked when Weiss closed her mouth. "Fine, maybe weirdos is putting is heavily, but still don't tell me normal people do that."

"No Hunter is normal," Emerald reminded him.

Neo just smiled beatifically. "Not at all."

Everyone just nodded.

Then they realized what just happened.

Cinder, Emerald and Mercury all looked up in shock. "You can speak?!" they exclaimed at the same time, too surprised to say anything else.

The others, who hadn't known Neo was mute, just watched in slight amusement.

Neo shrugged. "Dunno. When I woke up this morning, I found out I could talk." She then grinned. "Maybe _Lord Khor_ decided to give me a late birthday gift."

"You really think he's real?"

"You have a birthday?"

The two questions, respectively from Weiss and Mercury, earned pensive frowns and deadpans, respectively.

"Ignoring the second question," Pyrrha began, putting it nicely instead of 'stupid question'. "I believe he is. There aren't many other explanations. Not if we count Lady Salem, who Cinder knows personally."

"And she's _definitely_ not close by," Cinder added.

"Yes, but the mere thought of him being real is ridiculous. No offence to you, Pyrrha," Weiss countered. "A being that can effortlessly manipulate dreams to his wishes? That is odd but possible with a powerful Semblance. But for him to see the future _and_ to be able to make a mute speak, if that's what really happened? I find that hard to believe."

"We need more proof," Blake nodded.

Jaune looked at them all, and just shrugged. "Honestly, why are you even so surprised?"

The heiress harrumphed. "Maybe, because we are being nightly kidnapped by an entity with incredible powers against our will, and that being is not anything of this world?"

"And?" Jaune swallowed the mouthful of noodles and shrugged again. "We live in a world where crystals can shoot lightning and freeze stuff. Where our souls protect us from harm, heal our physical body, and give us superpowers like telekinesis or time manipulation, like Professor Goodwitch's or Weiss's. We use weapons of mass destruction like they were toys. And we fight against monsters made out of pure darkness whose only goal is the destruction of all Life. Don't you think _that_ is unbelievable too?"

Weiss groaned and rolled her eyes. "Those are _normal_, fully _explainable_ topics. How can you even think of comparing them to meeting a _god_?"

"I must agree with Weiss, that is pretty normal," Emerald added with a flat look at Jaune. "It wasn't the most fitting of examples."

"Why not? You all say that because you've been grown around Hunters, grown to _be_ Hunters, and the only things you talked or heard about were weapons, fighting, Hunters, Grimm, Aura, fighting, Dust, Grimm, and more Hunters. And you went to combat schools where they taught you the basic stuff like Maths and History, but most of the focus was, _again_, on weapons, Dust, Aura, Semblance, fighting, Hunters, fighting, Grimm, and fighting Grimm." Jaune showed his hands as if to shrug even more. "Outside those topics, you'd be surprised _so much_ by how the world works. Heck, even on those topics you only focused on the fighting part of being a Hunter, at least you girls, because I'm pretty sure there are laws against vigilantism. Gods know there are."

"What are you trying to say, you dolt?" Weiss huffed, crossing her arms, not happy about being called out on hers and her team's faults.

"What I mean is that you don't think Semblances are weird because you've grown up surrounded by them, unlocked them at a young age, or studied the subject for years. But to a random civilian? Are you kidding me? Random superpowers to every Hunter that can be as broken as _telekinesis_ on anything you want? That sounds ridiculous." Jaune didn't say he'd totally been one of those. "So you're acting like this because you're new to this. I'm pretty sure this 'Khor' considers himself very normal."

Before Weiss could object, Neo spoke up, too delighted by having a voice to stay silent. "Hot Stuff is right, you know?" she grinned in amusement as Jaune blinked at being called Hot Stuff.

"Huhh… Hot Stuff?" Pyrrha repeated. "Do you two… know each other?"

"Nope, yesterday was our first meeting," Neo replied cheerfully. "Why? Are you the only one who can call him Hot Stuff?"

"I- I don't call him that!" Pyrrha hurried to clarify, making the petite assassin -not that they knew about that- laugh.

"I'm sure Neo was just teasing you," Cinder sighed. "But Mr Arc is right. We aren't familiar with this and we are understandably shocked. My question is, why aren't you?"

Jaune chuckled nervously. "Heh… well… I never actually went to a combat school… I was… homeschooled, for my training."

"They must have not done such a good job then," Mercury snorted, scooping up some of his last noodles. While the others spoke, he'd gotten a good lead on them in terms of eating. He chewed slowly for a few seconds, pondering his next words carefully. "I guess… you could train with me, if you want. I'm somewhat of the team's expert in fighting."

Emerald gritted her teeth but didn't say anything.

Jaune blinked at the mix of courtesy and rudeness. "I… I don't want to be a bother-"

"He's in," Neo grinned, looping an arm around his. "And I'm gonna join too!"

Mercury glanced from the dichromatic girl to the blond. "My deepest condolences. Rest in peace."

"What-" Poor Jaune was utterly confused. And why did Pyrrha look like she'd just swallowed an entire lemon?

Now, Jaune had always been handsome -that seemed like a prerequisite to be a Hunter- and so he had received girls' attention prior, but his (over)protective sisters had made it so his interactions with said girls were minimal at best and inexistent at worst. So he really had no idea what was going on. Was Neo coming onto him?

For Pyrrha, he had no idea. Maybe she was sick. Allergic to something in the noodles, maybe?

"Well, if it's not a bother to you guys…" he accepted hesitantly, still not sure if they were pulling his leg or something.

Cinder, having caught onto Mercury's -and hopefully Neo's, since she really didn't want to think Neo had just gotten it in her head to seduce the boy to bed- plan, smiled disarmingly at the future Son of Salem, Hero of Remnant and Knight of the Emperor Hydra. "Of course not. We are training to become Hunters all together. We should jump to the opportunity of helping someone else train. In exchange, you could maybe tutor some of our weaker subjects. I myself have no problem keeping up with the school's program, but I can't say the same for my teammates."

"I'm fine," Emerald put up a fake smile and waved off the offer. "He'll have his hands full tutoring Merc and Neo anyway. Don't wanna add to that too much."

"Ah, it wouldn't-"

"Thanks Emmy, appreciate!" Neo cut him off with a smile that could've split her head in two. "I need soooo much help studying _Physics_~" She actually said 'physique' but no one could really call her out on that.

Jaune was still a tad confused, Pyrrha was _unpleasantly_ surprised, and everyone else was still flabbergasted. "O~kay?" He really didn't know what else to say. "When, though?"

"Well, maybe this weeke-"

"This afternoon and every afternoon afterwards for me," Neo continued to smile like a lovestruck little girl. "Mercury can wait until this weekend."

"Okay…" Now Jaune was also a little creeped out. Seriously, who ever acted like that?

"Well, see you in two hours then, Hot Stuff," Neo farewelled him as she jumped off her seat, leaving her noodles almost untouched, and sauntered away. With a polite smile, Cinder hurried after her.

Silence reigned for a second between the two women.

Then Cinder spoke.

"Please, tell me you were just trying to bring him on our side."

"Hm? Oh yes, that too. He's also kinda hot." She grinned as a blush appeared on her cheeks. "And you should've seen him in the showers… big Aura, big-"

"Ugh." Cinder groaned and rolled her eyes in disgust. "You're twice his age."

"And he's twice the size of anyone else!" Neo grinned lecherously. "And besides, I'm only twenty-three, actually. You're the old hag."

"I'm twenty-four."

"Exactly."

/-/

By the third time they appeared in Beacon's cafeteria, in their dreamscape at least, they were somewhat used to it. The students politely greeted the now human-looking Salem, who greeted them back, before they began to chat idly.

"Damn, I tried some sleeping pills specifically made for dreamless sleep, but looks like Khor might actually not be just a dream of mine," Yang complained.

"_**Why would you ever doubt my existence?**_" They didn't jump any more as Lord Khor's voice appeared before his body could. The amethyst-skinned, lilac-winged man seemed to walk into the room like he did the first time. "_**I thought I'd given you more than enough proof. Perhaps I should do more?**_"

"No, I believe we can all safely assume you're real," Pyrrha replied with a nod of acknowledgement towards the otherworldly entity. "Are we here to watch your future again?"

"_**Not mine, but your own.**_" Sensing that avoiding the question was pointless, Khor continued. "_**But yes, this is the reason of your presence here. Now, is there any other question?**_"

Neo raised her hand. "Why can I speak?"

Khor smiled. "_**Oh, nothing. I just thought that would be proof enough of my existence, and my power. I suppose I could've resurrected someone, but that usually results in troubles for everyone, so I settled for something minor.**_"

Neo grinned. "Thanks!"

"_**You are most welcome. Any other question?**_"

Everyone exchanged glances and then shrugged. No, they didn't have any. Not really.

"_**This is wonderful news. Then, let's begin this dream as well.**_"

"Wait!" Blake suddenly cried out. "How many dreams there will be?"

"_**… I do not know.**_"

Everyone just stared at him.

"_**I'm telling the truth. I do not know. Now, please let's start this dream, shall we?**_"

The students stared at him for a little longer before just shrugging, but Salem was intrigued. Ignorance was a flaw, but she'd never thought a god or godlike entity would ever willingly admit their own flaws. Power corrupted, and those with power usually considered themselves perfect.

The bitter irony of her own thoughts escaped her.

**"None shall stand before the might of my sons, they are the shield of the Remnant sector. They are the defenders of her people."**

**A massive defense platform drifted in orbit around Remnant, its massive gun batteries aimed forward. Nearby other similar ones floated nearby. They were a vanguard, ensuring the protection of their home system and home planet of their kingdom.**

**-Ship's deck-**

**"-Yep, she turned four yesterday! I'm so proud of her!" a crewman stated as spoke to another. The faunus held up the holographic photo of his daughter, she was being held by a human woman who simply smiled.**

Blake watched in shock. "An interracial relationship?" she accidentally said out loud. That was basically unheard of!

All the 'villains' turned to look at her. "It's kinda to be expected since Remnant's all unified now, don't you think?" Mercury retorted, amused by her outburst.

"I… I guess…" Blake still frowned. That was so far from what she'd always been led to believe, that love between a human and a Faunus was impossible, that it was actually hard to comprehend how it could've happened in a world she viewed as dystopic.

Salem rolled her eyes. If she had to name one thing she didn't understand about humanity, was the racism. She just couldn't understand how people could be stupid enough to have powers that allowed them to even change shape, and then discriminate on some minor physical attributes like ears or tails.

**"I bet, have you enrolled her into preschool yet? Its best to start early you know." the other said, he looked at his friend as he put the picture away.**

Ruby blew a raspberry. "That's not true! I never went to preschool! The only school I went to is Signal, and even then I've been taught everything I know homeschooled!"

"Yes Ruby, but with one of the parents always working, and we don't know if that woman works as well, preschool would allow the children to interact with each other while their parents can't stay with them because of their jobs," Weiss reprimanded her.

Neo narrowed her eyes and huffed. "That's not always the case, though," she said bitterly, remembering that not all children had good memories from school.

**"Not yet, but soon!" the faunus exclaimed, his human friend simply chuckled as he drank from his mug. Both looked out in the vastness of space as various ships were seen entering and leaving their home planet. Suddenly alarms were going off left and right, everyone started to scramble to their posts as the Commander of the Defense platform walked in. Her slender tail swaying a bit, indicating she was a faunus of some kind.**

**"We've got a ship leaving the warp ma'am, gun batteries are starting powering up." One of the crewman stated as the commander sat down, looking into the vastness of space.**

**"Any identification?" She asked.**

"How can they identify the ships if they are coming through this 'warp' thing?" Yang wondered. "Dust doesn't work in space. Like, nothing at all. Nada."

"They have already shown to have a different kind of energy source," Cinder replied easily. "It is not impossible for them to have also invented a new communication technology. Those ships are far more advanced than anything we could ever hope to build, after all."

"They are not _advanced_," Weiss tried to say in defence of Remnant's current level of technology. While she didn't have as much arrogance as the average Atlasian, it was in her blood to believe Atlas to be the pinnacle of technology. Everyone gave her a flat stare. "Not _that_ advanced."

"Yes they are," Ren interrupted. "They are clearly extremely advanced."

**"Um..Yes! Coming through now!" The crewman began to press various functions on his screen, getting the identity of the ship entering the space near their homeworld.**

**"Multiple ship signatures detected! They are about to exit the warp!" as soon as those words left his mouth, a thunderous boom was heard. They watched as massive tear in space itself began to form, the tear slowly opening as purple lightning violently thrashed about as it opens more, revealing a massive warship emerging from within. A few more similar sized ships exited as well, opening more tears as smaller ships also began to exit. More massive tears began to form as a few more massive warships began to exit from that hellish realm of space.**

"How the hell did we even manage to build those things?" Yang wondered out loud. "I mean, come on, they are _huge_!"

Salem shrugged. Yes, they were huge, but if people could build _Atlas_ floating in the sky, size clearly wasn't a problem.

**"Lord Ares, Lord Malach, Lord Onyx, and Lord Karn have been identified. Its their battle fleets ma'am." The crewman stated as everyone watched the return of their forces from their campaign. The four massive warships were those that belong to each of the "First Ten" while the smaller battleships were used by the Remnant guard, all had various degrees of damage done to them as they made their way out of the warp.**

**The Remnant Guard battleships changed direction before disappearing in a flash of light as they light jumped away.**

**"Ma'am, looks like the Remnant Guard ships are light jumping, each have given us the coordinates where they are going." A crewman stated as they watched the ships disappear in flashes of light.**

"Why would they go away, aren't they going back home?" asked Ruby, confused by that behaviour. "Have they been called to fight again? Without their leaders?"

"Maybe they aren't native of Remnant the planet, but Remnant the interplanetary empire," Cinder hypothesised. "After all, it wouldn't be surprising if most of our army were to be made up of other world's soldiers."

"Because they are enslaved?" Blake guessed with a frown.

"Because Remnant as it is isn't very densely populated, and one world will never have as many people as several, maybe dozens or hundreds, of other populated worlds," Cinder rolled her eyes. That was obvious. "You know, you girls seem to forget that while evil might be, well, evil, it does not mindlessly destroy everything. Allies are always better than slaves."

**"I know, they are in their home system now. No need to risk warp jumps when the light jump beacons are active. Dont want a ship to warp jump and pop up 20 years later at its destination now?" She answered, gazing upon the battleships before they vanished.**

**"The Shipyard planets of Overture, Titus, Hydronix and Azure have all confirmed the arrivals of some of the battleships, repairs are underway." Another told the Commander as he named but a few of the shipyard planets that were under Salem's rule. These planets dedicated to the creation and repair of various battleships that her Kingdom used.**

Yang whistled at the dangers of 'warp jumping'. "Damn, now those are some serious risks to take. I mean, randomly coming out at a different time? That's hardcore."

"So this 'warp' is an _actual_ tear in the timespace continuum," Salem murmured, beyond impressed that they had somehow learned how to control it and use it for interstellar travels. Even if the Imperium had been the one to teach them, which she didn't know, that still earned her respect.

After all, not even the Brother Gods dared to mess around with time.

"I hope they have perfected this 'warping' of theirs very well," Weiss commented. "Because to take such risks every time they have to move for long distances, would be very foolish."

_'Yes, almost as much as trying to stop my plan when you're just a quartet of little girls,'_ Cinder thought, rolling her eyes when they couldn't see her. She could see the amusement in her allies' eyes as well.

**"Man, they really took a beating."**

**"They also suffered losses." the Commander stated as she watched more and more vessels exit the warp. More and more were damaged, some looked as if they could explode any minute now. The commander clenched her fist as she watched. "How long do we have to keep fighting for the Imperium...Why must we send our own to die for their wars?" she asked as pure black ships exited the warp. Dozens of them did. "Fallen" Ships as they were dubbed. They carried the bodies of those that died. A single one could hold hundreds of fallen Remnant guards along with any Sons of Salem that perished. She watched as they flew towards different locations on Remnant while others light jumped away, taking those that have died to be prepared for their loved ones to reclaim them.**

The students wanted to cheer that the Grimm had taken losses, but they couldn't since Grimm or not those were their people, and thousands of them had died in that war.

Salem and her servants all lowered their eyes for a moment, in respect for those who had died. Despite being more than willing to deliver death themselves, it didn't mean they did so thoughtlessly. None of them liked death, even if they were usually apathetic toward the deaths of others.

Large scale massacres could still move them. Deep down, very deep down, they were still human.

**-Remnant; The land of Darkness-**

**Maze looked up towards the sky, her eyes gazed upon the four warships that hovered high above. Remnant Dropships began to descend down from them, many flying by as people looked up.**

**"I hope my son is safe." she heard one woman say as she watched more and more dropships fly by. All were headed to the designated landing platform, soon they would be marching through the streets, it was common for them to do so after every campaign.**

Cinder pursued her lips. As little as she cared about people and their lives, there was one thing she would freely admit never failed to horrify her. And that was seeing the brokenness of the parents who had been forced to watch their children precede them to the grave.

**"Look, Fallen ships." she heard some else exclaim and sure enough she saw them. Those blackened ships as they began to descend. She sighed, jumping when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Mauve, her friend.**

**"Hey, lets go get some ice cream! Heard your favorite ice cream parlor has a special going on!" Maze smiled a bit at her friends offer as they walked towards their destination. But she couldnt help but watch as some people hurried towards their vehicles, most likely going to see if their loved ones were among the dead. She couldn't help but feel sadness for them.**

"Seriously? Ice cream while people get the news of their relatives being dead?" Mercury drawled, both impressed at how easily the girls could get over seeing those ships, and being annoyed for that very same reason.

Assassin or not the dead had to be respected. Except his father, but he hadn't counted as a living human since the start anyway.

**-Salem's castle; Landing platforms-**

**Salem stood by as she watched the Thunderhawk carrying her four sons fly towards the platform. Nokris stood next to her, his height making her short in comparison. "How many?" she simply ask him.**

"Hey!" Nora exclaimed, slightly startling everyone in the illusion. "That's what we forgot to do!"

"Uhh…" Pyrrha had an idea what she was talking about, but when it came to Nora one could never really say if they knew for sure or not.

"What did you forget?" Emerald asked, not as used as the others were. _'Your brains?'_

"We forgot to ask Fearless Leader about this Nokris guy! Again!" Nora then put on a thinking face. "Maybe it was Korrie who made us forget again?"

"One, don't call him that, it's cringeworthy. And second, I don't think that's the case," Weiss replied, as cool as ice. "He has no reason to stop us. Not when he allowed us to tell Jaune about the dreams we had."

**"294 Young blood mother." he answered.**

**"How many Remnant Guard?"**

**"We are still counting."**

"Then they must be a lot…" Yang winced at the answer of the 2nd born of Salem.

**"I see." was all that she said. Her silence told Nokris everything. He knew his mother was beyond angered. These campaigns had taken much from them but soon. Soon it will be over. The Thunderhawk landed, opening its side doors to reveal three of her sons, Malach, Onyx, and Karn.**

**"Ares couldn't fit, he should be arriving in his personal one soon." Malach stated, a hint of amusement in his voice.**

"Not a surprise, given his size," Neo grinned and snickered at the giant of a man's expenses.

"Though, what does it mean, 'soon it will be over'?" wondered Ren. "As far as I've understood, the Imperium is forcing them into battle. They can't stop."

"Unless…" Salem replied with a small smirk. "Remnant were to find a way to fight off the Imperium. Permanently."

"I find that highly unlikely, but we shall see."

**"Mother." Onyx said as he bowed to one knee. Salem sighed, gesturing for her son to stand up.**

**"My child, there is no need to bow before me, you are my son. I raised you when you were just a small boy, my children need not bow before me." she told him, her voice was soft and maternal. "Now, take off your helmets', as you are home and i wish to see the face of my children."**

**Malach was the first, he grabbed the sides of his helmet as a hissing sound came from it. Underneath was a youthful face with a few scars running down his right eye. His neck length black haired swayed slightly in the wind as he gave Salem a warm smile. She smiled back at him as he lowered himself to her level to allow her to place a loving hand on the side of his face. Despite their giant sizes, they were still her small children. "Its good that you're home my child."**

**Onyx took his off next, a stoic and serious face was underneath his, jet black hair cut short. The left side of his face was badly burned, leaving behind scar tissue and a patched where his hair could not grow. His left eye was gone, having been replaced by a cybernetic one long ago. He looked at his mother, offering a small smile at her. "My son, I'm glad to see you safe."**

**Karn took his off soon after, his face a similar youthful one like Malach's. His platinum hair tied into a small ponytail with the sides shaved bald. His helmet resembled that of a Deathstalker. "Ah, its great to be home! The air on those planets were not pleasant." he laughed as Salem simply smiled. She looked at her sons, while they were all different, they did share something in common. Something that not even the other "Sons" shared with her. It was their deathly pale skin with dark purple veins lining near their faces and arms. All had black sclerae eyes with crimson colored pupils. Only the first ten shared this trait with her. They were her sons for She had raised them all.**

"Ugh, more Grimm creeps," Yang groaned. Cinder didn't dare say anything, but she too found the Firstborns of Salem's aspects unpleasant. Men weren't made to look like Grimm. Not that it didn't fit their style, but still…

Salem, however, was surprised. Her daughters had looked perfectly human. Why were they Grimm-like in appearance, instead? Had they gone through the same process as her? If Nokris was really a boy in their own time, it was possible they had gained immortality as well, following her footsteps.

**She was relieved to see her sons were home, safe and sound. But sadness still stung her heart as many others did not make it back home.**

**"Mother, we should go to the war room. I just received word from the others about the seeding." he told her, she nodded as she walked back inside, the others following closely behind. Various maids and servants bowed as they walked past them.**

**"Oh my, Karn looks absolutely lovely does he not?" A maid whispered after as they walked away**

"Bleeeegh!" Nora fake-gagged. "Boo! He looks like a Grimm! How can he be 'lovely'!?"

"Different times, different cultures, different tastes," Salem replied smoothly.

"Grimm are still Grimm though!" Nora tried to mimic it, but she failed hopelessly. "Like… all twisted and… evil… and spikey… and furry… and bony… and all that!"

Salem just rolled her eyes and ignored the girl. After all, everyone who knew Nora knew when to ignore her and when not to. Ignoring her was always the better option.

**"He is quite stunning." the other whispered, hoping they both were not heard. But unbeknownst to the maids was that all of them had excellent hearing thanks to the process of becoming Primaris Marines.**

**"Heh, I still got it after all these centur-" someone smacked him across the head. He looked to see Malach trying to hide a grin.**

"Centuries?" Yang finished his sentence, confused. "What does he mean by that?"

"Grimm don't die of old age – perhaps they too can only succumb to lethal wounds in battle," Salem hypothesised, confused but masking it much better.

"That might be it. I doubt they would live that long otherwise," Weiss nodded in agreement, apparently satisfied with the explanation.

**"All of you in, it appears Ares is about to arrive." Salem stated as they walked in. She looked to see her other sons, well holograms of them standing around a circular machine in the center of the room.**

**Crimson, "The Hunter", 5th born of Salem. His helmet resembling that of the Sabertooth Grimm known as a Sabyr, was held at his side. His skin similar to the others, deathly pale with same dark veins. His head shaved to where he was almost bald, face markings adorned his face as he looked at the others. Upon his power armor, He wore the pelt of a massively large wolf-like creature, wearing the upper part of its head as a hood. Various skulls of different creatures adorned his power armor. Humanoid skulls of various aliens ranging from Eldar, Human traitors, tau and others. All tied security along his waists as a large skull from an Ork was tied to his pauldron. The massive jaw of the ork was broken and tied to ensure it stayed secure.**

"Yay for peace and quiet!" Yang exclaimed sarcastically at the sight of the various skulls. "Wonder how those aliens looked though. That 'Ork' thing must be pretty big."

"Maybe it means a creature similar to the Grimm Orc?" Salem hypothesised, getting confused looks by everyone including her underlings. "Grimm not seen a lot these days. They were large humanoids with little to no bone armour, wielding bone clubs. They fought in groups."

"You certainly are very knowledgeable in this field," mumbled Yang. "Are you sure you're not the same Salem as in there?"

Salem smiled disarmingly and grabbed something from her vest – she was very glad when she actually found it. She would've wasted Watts's time, hadn't it worked. "I believe this should explain it."

Weiss took the papers she was offering them. "Salem Queen. Uhm, odd name…"

"I had no control over who my parents were, or how they were called."

"True. Sorry if I offended you." Weiss continued to read the papers. "Doctorate in Grimm Studies, Grimm History and Grimm Psychology. Impressive, Lady Salem. Truly impressive. You must've worked very hard to achieve such levels."

Salem waved off her praise as she took her 'doctorates' back. "More than you'd think, Ms Schnee. But even I am not all-knowing, even when it comes to Grimm." She too could forget things, after all.

**Skorge, "The Conqueror", 6th born of Salem. He didn't wear a helmet but a hood, revealing part of his face to all. He wore the lower part of his power armor helmet across the lower part of his face as a breathing mask of sorts. His armor more battle damaged with various scratches, dents and other signs of damage upon it. Though it appeared not to hinder the structure of the armor. No these were more like trophies or reminders. Upon his left pauldron a small Nevermore was perched, looking around as Skorge fed it something.**

**Tarn, "The Sorcerer", 7th born of Salem. He looked up at his mother, his helmet fashioned into that of a Sphinx. His armor was mostly covered by a robe of sorts. Various talismans hung from his pauldrons and chest plates. Two massive books hung from his waist as two seers floated on his left and right sides. He appeared to be talking to someone nearby, no doubt one of his soldiers. They stood at attention as their mother made neared the center of the room. **

"Uhh, why would he be called 'The Sorcerer'?" Nora wondered. "And what's with those books on his belt?"

"Maybe he has a Semblance that requires Dust and those books are just all the possible Dust combinations and patterns he can use in synergy with his Semblance," Weiss guessed. Not too surprising given who said it.

**Salem looked at them all, much like the others, they all had the same deathly pale skin and eyes as the others.**

**"My Sons, i hope that you are all well." she told them, Tarn simply nodded at his mother.**

**"The Orks have been giving me quite a fight but nothing I can't handle." Crimson responded back to her.**

"Ha, so even this so-called 'The Hunter' is having trouble with some Orcs!" Nora exclaimed mockingly before glaring at the void. "I always hate when the Orc someone rolls high enough to hit and takes away half my HP at 3rd level just because of his stupid greataxe…"

"Uhh… what?"

Ren shrugged. "Ghosthouses&Grimm third edition. She never got over the time her character died for a few Orcs."

Everyone exchanged glances and then shrugged. All the ones who had played that game nodded solemnly – the Orcs were just unfair.

**"Where is our younger brother?" Skorge asked, seeing that their youngest was not here.**

**"He is ensuring a newly flooded planet is secured. Once he's done there, he will be heading here to rest before going into his campaign." Salem answered them. She knew her youngest son was capable of handling the situation. But should an Imperial scout discover the planet, then he would deal with it even if it escalated to a battle, she knew he would come out as the victor. He wasn't called "The World Ender" for nothing after all. A title he was true to. "Ares should be arriving soon."**

"'Cause his fat butt can't squeeze through an airship!" Yang laughed, but no one joined in as they felt some kind of murderous aura bearing down on them.

Cinder began to sweat, and wonder just how little self-preservation those students actually possessed.

"Wait, I thought Nokris was 'the World Ender'," Nora spoke up.

"No, the first time the title was mentioned it said that the _youngest_ earned it, while Nokris is apparently the eldest son," Cinder replied boredly. Seriously, did those students ever pay attention? Or were they all combat and no study, like she actually feared? Wait, she didn't actually want the answer to that question.

**"Take it the transport was too small for him again?" Crimson chuckled, followed by laughter from Malach and Karn.**

**"Yeah! You should have seen the look on his face. Never gets old!" Karn said laughing. Immediately after saying that, Ares had walked in, his helmet long taken off. Revealing a badly scarred face with his black hair braided into a warrior wolf's tail. He glared down at his brothers. But yet they still laughed.**

"Okay, I have to admit it, props for still laughing with the guy in the same room. That's gutsy," Yang stopped laughing. "Pretty rude, but gutsy."

Salem was gritting her teeth, hoping that those students would at least stop insulting her children. Not that she had had them already, but still she felt very irked by their words.

She had to admit, maybe Cinder and her group hadn't been wrong in not becoming friends with them.

**"You shouldn't have remodeled parts of the castle mother, it would have been funny to see him trying to squeeze through the smaller entrances." Malach laughed but a glare from Salem shut him quickly.**

**"Ah my son, I'm happy to see you again my War titan." Salem greeted her son, she looked up to him as smiled at her.**

**"Now that we are all here, its time to update you all on the seeding." Nokris stated, he pressed a button on the machine as it hummed to life. It showed a holographic map of the Imperium.**

"The seeding?"

"Maybe if you shut up it'd tell us!"

**The galactic spanning Empire ruled by the Immortal God-Emperor of mankind, billions upon billions of worlds were in its domain with an unimaginable number of human subjects loyal to it. The map zoomed in the far far corner of the Imperium's galactic domain, showing a decent sized sector of space though considered small in Imperium standards but it was their sector, known as the Remnant sector.**

**"The Seeding has gone well, these planets here and here have been newly seeded recently." Nokris explained as a few planets within their sector immediately began to glow red. "That gives us a total of 102 planets now seeded within our sector."**

**"How many have been flooded since the seeding began?" Crimson asked.**

**"So far 26 within our borders and 10 in the Imperium's domain." Nokris continued.**

"I'm totally loooo~ooost…" Nora sang with a grin, not at all minding being confused.

"I'm sure we all are, Nora," Pyrrha replied with as much of a smile she could muster while watching a gathering of immensely powerful human Grimm plotting. "But perhaps if we wait and see, it will explain better."

"Mmh…"

**"Have many of the planets have already birthed the new strain yet?" Ares was the next to ask. Salem looked over at the map, zooming in on one of the planets.**

**"Yes, I can feel them but we don't need to worry about them, The new Grimm haven't breached the surface yet from the flooded ones but soon they will. We need to keep the Imperium away from these planets for now until we get enough flooded planets to incubate the new strain for the plan."**

**"We have reports of the two Seeded planets in the Lucian System in our sector have already shown new strains of Grimm. We've been calling them Cyclops." Crimson swiped his hand, a video screen was immediately projected showing massive bipedal creatures that were similar in size as Ares. The creatures had fat like stomachs but with muscular upper body and lower body. The familiar bone armor covered their lower bodies with small spikes protruding from their backs, a single glowing orange eye rested in the center of their deathly white skull. Some were walking around, with looked like crude clubs in one hand.**

"Ugh, what are those things?"

"The closest Grimm I could compare them to is the Polyphemus subtype. Very similar, but it prefers to throw boulders at most, usually just its hands, and it looks more muscular," Salem replied. That particular Grimm had been abandoned due to the fact it was pretty easy to blind and thus defeat. "However these Cyclops seem to be somewhat stronger and significantly smarter, if they can use clubs instead of fighting bare-handedly. Perhaps even as intelligent as Geists or more, depending on whether they made those clubs themselves or just use trees as clubs."

"So… pretty nasty big baddies with enough brains to use a club?" Ruby guessed, unknowingly sounding more offensive than she wanted to be.

Salem sighed but nodded. Not like she liked Grimm anyway. "Yes, that is correct."

Ruby beamed and elbowed Weiss. "She's far nicer than you! She actually can admit I'm right sometimes!"

"Ugh…"

**"I see they are using weapons of some kind." Ares noted, noticing the clubs.**

**"Yes, once they started getting used to their surroundings they began to make weapons from anything they could use." Crimson explained, he moved his hand across and another video appeared. It showed a Cyclops being equipped with Armor and given a massive hammer like weapon that sparked with electricity. A heavy helmet was placed on its head, upon doing so a clicking sound could be heard as small lights began to flicker on the helmet, giving the illusion it had multipe eyes.**

**"I've had the Remnant Makers create armor for them, as well as equip them with thunder hammers and shields. The Cyclops can be used as heavy Front line shock troops that can easily break through the front lines." he continued as the Cyclops roared on the video, swinging its new massive weapon around and sending objects flying from the gravity effect of the weapon. It was truly a sight to behold for Salem. She smiled, knowing a powerful new grimm will soon be added to her forces.**

Salem nodded in agreement with her 'son' Nokris. Indeed, hadn't she been set on not letting people know about the Grimm being led by someone, she would've probably used similar Grimm species to gear up. Instead she was stuck with creating stupid wimps like Beowolves and Ursai while she could have armoured Deathstalkers be the weakest members of her army, and create some immensely powerful, well-equipped superior kind of Grimm for the heavy hitters troops. Truly, being stealthy meant greatly limiting her creations' powers.

"Brr, Grimm with weapons, now that's a scary thought," Ruby shuddered. She already had nightmares about Grimm eating Crescent Rose, now she would see Beowolves stealing him and using her dear baby against his own mother!

**"If you give a group of them Energy Shield walls, our forces can walk behind them as the Cyclops pushed forward, make it easier for our forces to overcome defenses during sieges." Malach stated as Salem listened.**

**"Good point, I'll ensure the Makers know."**

"I'm guessing these 'Makers' are the elite military scientists and artificers," Weiss spoke up, raising an eyebrow. "Why give them a different title?"

"Perhaps they are in a different divisions and just need a title to tell them from normal scientists and artificers," Emerald shrugged, uninterested.

**"Back to the topic, the Flooded planets are currently being protected by our younger brother's forces. So far, any Imperial ships that have gotten near have either been fooled into leaving or destroyed. Either way, they are safe for now." Nokris said, looking at his brothers before looking at Salem, the optics of his helmet glowing.**

**"Soon, very soon the time will be upon us my sons. Once the flooding of the planets finishes near our borders and our various systems are safe, we will**

**begin the operation." Salem stated, as she looked at them all. "What of the New guard?"**

**"So far, its going well. Their numbers have already surpassed 40,000, two squads are already on their way to join the rest of the chapter while the others go into stasis for now."**

**"Good, we need to keep the numbers low within the chapter for now. I fear we may being investigated by the Inquisition." Salem stated, her sons looking at each other.**

"So… are you planning to destroy the Imperium? Fight back against your allies?" Yang wondered out loud.

"Who are you talking to?" Mercury barked a laugh. "That's a few centuries into the future, blondie. No one here is the same as there."

"Except for Salem."

Salem rolled her eyes. "Are you saying I've somehow found a way to live for centuries without ageing?"

Yang opened her mouth, only to close it after a few seconds of silence.

**"Damn the inquisition, I'm assuming they are trying to figure out what happened to the Inqusitor they sent here a while ago?" Karn asked, Salem nodded slightly.**

**"They have reason to believe he wasn't attacked by the pirates that roam our sector. Inquisitor Hadrial insists his comrade was too skilled to be killed by mere pirates. He will be here soon to do a proper investigation." She told them.**

**"Great, another one."**

**"Can't we have Atriox deal with him? I'm sure our youngest brother would want to add a new voice to his choir. Maybe even his experiments might bear fruit with an Inquisitor corpse." Skorge said, his deep voice synthesized by his mask.**

"Human experiments? Ugh," Weiss shook her head, disgusted. "Befitting of a Grimm."

"And a Schnee," Neo let slip before she could catch herself.

"What?!"

"Neo!" Cinder hissed furiously.

However, Neo was far from impressed. "What? Weiss may be different but the Schnee Dust Company has been investigated a few times for their illegal Dust experiments on people. It's the truth."

Weiss looked away when her friends turned to look at her. "My family may not have been found guilty officially, but with how my father is, I don't find that accusation hard to believe."

**"No, one inquisitor vanishing is already suspicious but two? In the same sector? We'd have an entire Ordos on us!" Crimson stated. "We aren't trusted and they will find any excuse to come here with their forces."**

**"Crimson is right, we will have to deal with this when the time comes." Ares interjected, he moved his hand across the screen. A video popped up, showing a planet with a massive ring around it. It was clear that the ring was man made, various moving parts could be seen as beams of light would shoot down onto the planet below. Dozens upon dozens of damaged ships slowly made their way to the ring. Overture, one of the many shipyards within Queen Salem's navy. "Overture is already filled with our damaged ships from the campaign. These damn wars are taking too much!"**

"So these 'Shipyard Planets' are really just immense docks for these spaceships, where they are kept, built and repaired," noted Blake. "That is…"

"Interesting?" Cinder offered.

"Smart?" Emerald added as well.

"I was actually going to say surprising, but yes, I have to admit it's also interesting, and pretty smart to have them on different planets, both to spread out the possible military targets they might be, and to have ships all around the universe ready to fight."

**"Speaking of the Campaign Ares." Nokris spoke up. Despite still wearing his helmet, Ares could feel his older brother glaring at him. He couldn't care less.**

**"Something to add brother?"**

**"Your actions on the Rebels capital world was unwarranted and out of line! Your orders were to secure the capital, not turn the whole damn thing into a tomb!" Nokris yelled as he slammed his fist on the projector, surprising the others, even Ares and Salem herself. "Your actions on that planet have not gone unnoticed, i was able to stop a message from getting to any inquisitors of what you did to those rebels."**

**"I did what needed to be done, if the leaders were allowed to live then another war would have started! We would have had to come back!" Ares shot back. He knew his orders that day. But he disregarded them. "I will never make that mistake again. Yes, I killed them all, every single soldier that fought died. Even as the leaders surrendered, I still slaughtered them." Nokris looked at his brother, if he was closer he knew he would have Ares on the ground clutching his face. "If even one had lived, the fires of war would have been reignited and we would be back there again, losing more Young blood and Remnant Guard!"**

**"I am your Warlord first, your brother second Ares. I will not have you-"**

"Wow, he went so far even the Grimm guy can tell," Nora said, disgusted by Ares's actions.

Salem frowned. While she didn't approve of Ares's actions, his logic was actually solid. If they let the rebel leaders run away or even just surrender, they would simply start another rebellion. People with that kind of fire wouldn't be extinguished by defeat.

"Kind of to be expected, given who he is. Or well, what they are," Weiss agreed with the hammer wielder of the group. It would've been surprising, hadn't it been on such an obvious matter.

"Not necessarily, the others have shown restraint when needed," Mercury shrugged. "It's more likely for Ares to be just the odd one out. The one who has a more violent approach to battles."

**"Enough! You sound like squabbling children." Salem commanded, immediately silencing her other sons who were whispering to each other. She looked at them, she sighed as she looked at Ares. He had his reasons for doing what he did, she knew that. But Nokris was right. "Ares...your actions have almost jeopardized the safety of our kingdom and our people. I know your reasonings and why you fight the way you do." He looked at her, their eyes locking. She could see in those eyes what no one else could…**

**Worry. Fear. Concern. But not for him or his actions. No he would gladly Do it again. No those emotions were for them; his descendants or grandchildren as he preferred. Those that he held close to his heart besides her and his brothers.**

**"But you must restrain yourself!" She scolded, looking up at him as she walked towards him. "Nokris, while you are correct that his actions were out of line, he also ensured another insurgency can never rise again. Without their leaders, they can never muster the support to try this again." Nokris nodded, his mother did bring up a good point.**

"Exactly," Salem nodded. "Both were right _and_ wrong at the same time. In the end the world isn't black and white, but shades of grey. Nothing is black and white."

"Except for Grimm," Yang replied with a grin. "'Cause you know, they're all black and white, with some minor red and yellow thrown in?"

"Odd…" Everyone looked at Ren, who seemed pensive. "I never actually paid much thought to it, but Team RWBY's colour themes are actually the same as the Grimm's…"

"WHAT?!" To say the girls were outraged would've been an understatement. For once, it had been Ren, not Jaune or Ruby, the one to put his foot into his mouth.

"It is just a curious coincidence," the green ninja shrugged, dispelling that train of thoughts.

**"Cut off the head of the snake and the body dies." Crimson added, Salem smiling a bit at him.**

**"Precisely, I'm glad something's I taught you centuries ago still stuck." She chuckled. "Now, all of you go, tomorrow there will be a council meeting and the various Governors across our Sector will be there."**

"Centuries ago?" Everyone looked at Salem, who just looked back at them, unimpressed.

"I stand by what I said – how would I make myself immortal?"

"By becoming part Grimm?" Blake hypothesised with a semi-hostile frown.

Salem rolled her eyes. "And how would I do that?"

This time they remained silent.

**"Great, listening to literal children squabble." Karn complained, he never liking deal with those people, they were all children in his eyes.**

**"Then I shall see you all tomorrow then." Tarn stated, his hologram disappearing followed by Crimson and Skorge. Salem let out a sigh as she watched Ares leave, most likely going back to his home.**

**"Nokris, follow me. You as well Malach." She told them, walking out of the war room. Karn shrugged as he and Onyx left to get their armor taken off.**

**"The message, was it successfully intercepted?" She asked him.**

**"Yes mother, it was. I ensured those that sent it were killed in a "bombing run" by rebels." Nokris answered, Salem humming in acceptance of his answer.**

**"Malach, tell me. Why are you not wearing your usual armor? I noticed that when you left for that campaign."**

**"To ensure that the newly created Tyrant Rexes didn't pick up the scent of their Alpha. I needed to ensure that they had my scent before they got hers or else I would have problems."**

"Uhh…"

Salem rolled her eyes. "Grimm, as mindless as they are, still follow their leaders, their Alphas. That's how they can work in pacts. If he had allowed them to imprint on his mount's scent, then he would have a harder time controlling them. Instead by making them imprint on him, he's making it clear to them he's the Alpha."

"Ohh…"

**"I see." Salem walked quietly with her two sons. The giants of men ensuring they didn't accidentally hurt the smaller servants that walked by.**

**"Nokris, why didn't you berate Onyx? Didn't he burn a city?" Malach asked, curious as to why he didn't.**

**"Onyx didn't burn the citizens alive, he made them watch as he burned down and I quote "A monument to their sins. So that they can build anew as they have been cleansed." So there was no reason to do so."**

**"Still…" they both looked at their mother, having been quiet during their exchange.**

**"Your brother had sent me a message, he told me that an Imperial cruiser jumped out of the warp above the newly flooded planet he was guarding." She spoke up, breaking the silence.**

**"Really? What did he say?" Nokris asked, annoyed a bit he was just learning this now but it was something their younger sibling did. Always ensuring Salem knew first about happenings near flooded planets.**

**"He would take care of it." She stated as Nokris and Malach looked at each other, knowing full well what that meant.**

"Total slaughter?"

"Complete massacre."

"Assassination."

Yang, Blake and Weiss all exchanged glances while Salem was left fuming at their cheekiness. Sure, her youngest 'son' was very probably going to do exactly that, but to have the gall to hypothesise she was the actual mother of the Sons, and then talk trash of them right in front of her… It really made her wonder how the hell she could stand having humans around in her castle.

"Total party kill!" Nora exclaimed.

"Another Ghosthouses&Grimm reference," Ren explained, yawning in slight boredom. That meeting had sure been uneventful, even if that 'Seeding' seemed to be fairly important. He couldn't be bothered to feel intrigued, however – new species of Grimm to fit new technologies. Nothing the world hadn't experienced already in a slightly smaller scale.

**-unknown area of space-**

**The wreckage of imperial Cruiser floated aimlessly in space, her crew frozen by the coldness of space as their bodies floated with her above a pitch black planet. Bodies burned or blown apart when the ship blew up, thousands souls lost, their killer's ship floated by. A massive battleship moved away from the wreckage, its imposing size was matched by its imposing weaponry, massive gun batteries aimed away from the wreckage. It had done its duty. protecting the planet below from those that wouldn't take the warning.**

The students winced slightly, in silent mourning for those who had died, before they took another look at the planet. "Wait a second," said Ruby, squinting. "Is that planet black?"

"Yeah, it looks like it's made out of coal or some other dark material…" Yang then noticed a slight ripple in the planet's surface. "No, wait, it's liquid! The planet's full of black water!"

Salem's eyes widened. Was that Grimm fluid? Where had she found that much Grimm essence to cover an entire planet? Why did it have to be monitored? So many questions, so little answers…

**He watched from the bridge of his ship as some of his fleet moved away from the planet. The massive primaris marine looked at the carnage he brought upon these imperials. His helmet fashioned into that of an Imp Grimm with two curved horns to complete the look. The left side of his armored body hidden by his cloak as figures stood around him, flaking his sides. All six of them cladded in blood red armor robes with Grimm masks reminiscent of Geists covering the entirety of their faces.**

Ren clenched his fists tightly, looking at the Imp-shaped helmet. If he was right, if the guy followed all the Sons of Salem's helmet-mount connection, then he had to be riding the Knucklelavee. The thought of anyone riding that monstrosity made his blood boil. He swore he would kill it. He swore he would kill the rider too, if he got in the way.

Nora, beside him, placed a hand on his arm in worry, but he didn't even appear to notice her gesture. "Ren…"

**_"They didnt listen…"_**** a whisper, it sounded like many voices speaking at once overlapping the others. The whispers sounded like they were coming from everywhere.**

**_"They needed to die…these newborns need to be protected…"_**** another whisper. A woman's. But again, with the same overlapping tone of many voices talking at once. This one was just more dominant.**

"Ugh, what the hell are those voices?" Yang groaned, hating how those sounds felt. They were just wrong. "What kind of Grimm could make that noise?"

"No normal Grimm can talk." She should know, she'd tried to make humanoid Grimm to use as infiltrators since forever, but all she got were some skeletal horrors like the Apathies. Which were absurdly powerful in their own rights, but that eventually stuck out like a sore thumb amongst humans. "Perhaps it's their ship's intercom or something like that. If their armour is shaped like Geists, perhaps they have a ghostly theme going on…"

"That'd make sense, I guess…" Yang reluctantly accepted the explanation. Seriously, those voices were creepy as fuck!

**_"But the newborn will feed on the bodies...nourishment…"_**** more whispers. His crew silently worked at their stations, ignoring the chittering coming from above them. Instead some were focusing on the origins of the whispers; at both their commander and the hooded figures. Suddenly the massive double doors to the bridge opened, drawing their attention away towards a group of armored soldiers known as the "Silent Guard", a small regiment led by the World Ender.**

"Wait a second, what will feed on the bodies?" Weiss wondered.

"Perhaps some kind of new being they invented." Cinder shrugged even as she made that suggestion. "Or perhaps a new technology resembling living creatures that turns the corpses into energy."

"That is possible," Salem agreed. "Grimm don't actually need to eat to live. They become stronger with age. Although maybe new strains of Grimm born on alien planets might hide secrets even I am not aware of."

**Their armor was nothing like the Remnant guard that came from the home system, no it was pitch black like that of Grimm. Made from an unknown metal found on one of their worlds, they sported robe like clothing with black armor strapped all around it giving them a frighteningly knightly look. Their faces hidden from view by silver metallic face masks fashioned into the visage of the Apathy grimm. Two swords sheathed behind their backs. One stepped forward and knelt down to one knee before the Primaris Marine. His face mask different from the others, it resembled that of an Imp much like his master's.**

"They are keeping the ghost Grimm theme," Salem murmured. Then she noticed the confused looks sent her way, and she rolled her eyes. "Geists can possess inanimate objects. Apathies drain the will to live. And the Imp's scream is so piercing its opponents have difficulty fighting through it to engage in combat efficiently. All three are weak in body, but their special abilities make up for that. Perhaps this is why he chose them – he is the youngest, just like they are weak, but he is far from powerless."

"Whatever, it's frankly creeping me out," Yang said, and it did take a lot to creep her out. Due to her looks, she had some experience with very… odd… proposals from interested parties.

**He looked up at his master, silently as the Primaris Marine looked away to look at him.**

**_"Survivors? How...many?..."_**** the whispers came, though the soldiers seemed unfazed.**

**The soldier said nothing as he looked at the Marine, though a faint whisper could be heard. He turned his head at the others and As if they were signaled, two of them brought up a wounded man. Dressed in a large ornate overcoat with various medallions on it. A tube ran from the left side of his face towards his cybernetic left eye. His hand replaced by am advanced prosthetic. He had a hard face as he looked up at the primaris marine before him. His face full of anger, not a hint of fear.**

**_"The captain?...did not go down with your ship?"_**** One of the hooded figures moved closer to the captain, he could hear a continuous stream of whispers coming from it. As if a hundred voices were trying to speak at once. ****_"And six others…as well…."_**

"So creepy…" Nora murmured with stars in her eyes. Unbeknownst to a lot to people, she actually loved haunted mansions and ghost tales. Mostly because ghosts were something not all people believed in, and since she believed in a lot of things people thought not real, she kind of felt kinship toward those who weren't believed either.

Ren just shrugged, aware of his best friend's beliefs and antics and so completely used to them, nothing could shock him any more.

Well, almost nothing.

**"Get away from me creature!" The captain snapped, moving slightly before the guards brought him back down. "You! Marine! What is the mean-" a swift kick to the face from a metal boot shut him up. He spat blood and a few teeth as he glared at his attacker.**

"Brutal…"

**The soldier was quick to silent the disrespect the man spoke to his master, he looked at the captain as he glared up at him. The captain couldn't see his face but he could feel the man glaring at him as if he had spoken ill of the God-Emperor himself!**

**_"My child...calm yourself…" _****a hood figure spoke. The soldier looked at his master, pointing angrily at the captain.**

**"He may speak his mind…"**

**The soldier looked down at the man, as if ready to strike again but was stopped when the Primaris Marine stepped forward with a loud thud of his armored foot. He only took a step and the soldier looked at him immediately.**

"They're so full of themselves they can't even take an insult…" Yang murmured under her breath, not knowing just how hypocritical that was.

**_"An order...leave us…"_**** a robed figure spoke, the soldier clenched his fist tightly before signaling the others to let the captain go and leave. He looked back the Primaris Marine.**

**_"Rest...now…"_**** a robed figure spoke. The soldier left, though one could tell he was not happy.**

**The captain watched as they left, looking at the Primaris Marine. The Marine going back to his original position of staring at the darkened planet as the wreckage of the cruiser began to slowly descend upon it. He watched as two of the hooded figures helped him up.**

**_"Your ship...it was beautiful...a shame…"_**** one spoke to him as one led him to the marine. The captain, despite his own impressive tallness, still had to look up at the marine, his mind swarming with all kinds of thoughts. But he had to be calm, lead the Primaris Marine into a false sense of security and get passage off this ship. Let the High Lords know what transpired.**

**"Why did you attack my ship? I lost over 100,000 men because of you!" The captain demanded, annoyed that he never looked at him. Only staring at the planet below, one that he'd never seen the likes of before.**

Mercury whistled. "A hundred thousands men? Not bad! Just how big was that thing? I mean, that's probably more than Menagerie's total population!"

Blake though about it, and then nodded grimly. "Kuo Koana has a bit less than fifty thousands inhabitants, though there are some Faunus who prefer to live outside the city. Even counting those, I don't think it'd reach fifty-five."

"So he basically had twice the population of Menagerie all working on that ship," Neo commented. "Not bad. Especially when you consider how many ships like those the Imperium has. If Remnant, which is a tiny 'sector' of the Empire, has thousands of ships, just how many people are working in the Imperium's army?"

"Probably billions," Cinder replied. "Taking in consideration the fact they have millions of worlds to recruit people from, it is not so surprising."

"That's still a pretty big number though."

**_"You...were...given warnings captain…"_**** one told him, looking at him with that disgusting mask.**

**"I'm not speaking to you creature but to your master." He snarled at the hooded thing that spoke to him.**

**_"You are...speaking to me…"_**** another stated as the captain looked at it, confused. Before he could elaborate, a loud chittering sound from above made him look up, only to see dozens of creatures curled up and hanging from the ceiling. They looked like humans with broad shoulders with exposed bones and muscles. He couldn't get a good look at them since they were curled in a fetal position upside down on the ceiling of the bridged. But he could see a few had what appeared to be remnants of animal-like ears on their bald heads and even broken horns on their foreheads.**

"WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE THINGS?!"

That was more or less the general thoughts on the matter. Even Salem was freaked out by that sight.

Ruby looked like she would be sick, which was proven correct a second later when she quite simply threw up everything she'd eaten the day before. Those monsters looked as much like ghouls and zombies as they could. The fact the illusion around them was so realistic only made it worse.

Weiss actually was sick too, but she didn't throw up only because she had too much self-control for that. In reality, she was even more freaked out than Ruby.

To Blake, those looked like her worst nightmares. Corpse-like and feral, both humans and Faunus… or at least whatever remained of them.

Yang may have actually been the one to take it the worst. Being as 'cool' as she was, she had _obviously_ watched a lot of zombie movies with her friends, and played zombie survival games. At first she was scared by the high-quality-images of decaying corpses covered in blood as they tried to eat her, but eventually she'd gotten used to them, telling herself it was just a video. Seeing them in an illusion like that more or less froze her on the spot in fear.

Nora took back whatever she'd ever thought about Atriox, the youngest Son of Salem, and him being awesome: he wasn't, not at all! No one could be anything but a monster if they used such abominations for whatever the reason!

Pyrrha was amongst the ones taking it better. She was a trained warrior and, even if she had little to no real-world experience, she could still keep her cool in a situation like that. Of course, though, that didn't mean she wasn't horrified, terrified, and disgusted by the creatures. It just meant she was better at covering it up.

Ren was using his Semblance on himself non-stop, and even then it was like even that wasn't enough to quell the horror rising up in him, even after all the destruction he'd seen when Kuroyuri had fallen. Enough said.

Cinder was disgusted more than horrified or scared. Not that she wasn't feeling those two as well, but she was one of Salem's closest servants – she had seen things no one human being had. But to twist corpses into servants… it both gave her ideas and made repulsion rise like bile in her throat.

Emerald was on the verge of fainting.

Mercury and Neo, as much as they didn't want to admit it, were terrified. And for a good reason. What an assassin always feared wasn't to be found out, that was the second worst thing that could happen. No, the first was retribution. For a second, the creatures looked too much like people they had personally killed. Their victims coming back from the dead had already been their worst nightmares – to see it being made possible was even worse.

Salem felt disgusted, but strangely intrigued and impressed. Since all her troubles had started with her wish to return Ozma to the world of the living, she couldn't deny she felt great interest in her youngest son's actions, no matter how unlike Life those creatures actually looked and acted.

**One arched its bald scarred head and looked at him, orange eyes burned into his as he saw what looked like a man, though the expression was fixated into that of a snarl. He watched as the lower jaw opened, splitting into two mandibles filled with razor sharp teeth. It lowered its head as it went back to sleep.**

**"What in the Empero-"**

"I COMPLETELY AGREE!" Nora screamed, freaked out beyond measure. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE THINGS?!"

"They… they look like corpses…" Cinder noted, trying her hardest not to look at the monsters above them. "Maybe they have been… reanimated… by some kind of new technology?"

"Or maybe some new kind of Grimm that can consider dead organic matter as inanimate object in order to possess it…" Salem hypothesised as well, grimacing.

"That's… that's horrible!" Pyrrha exclaimed.

The Queen of the Grimm nodded in agreement. "Yes, indeed it is." She didn't know why she allowed it to exist, but deep down she didn't really care about people, so why should she care about dead people? Those mattered even less.

**_"Beautiful aren't they?...my creations…"_**** he looked to see the Primaris Marine stare at him as a hooded figure spoke. He then realized something. ****_"Humans….Faunus….criminals given new life….to serve again...atone for past sins…"_**

**"I am speaking to you. These...things! You speak through them don't you!" He stated, pointing at him. All the hooded figures began to laugh. As if it was a choir of a thousand voices laughing all together before they suddenly stopped.**

**"Look…my greatest creation…a gift for my mother…"**

"What an awful gift…" Mercury commented, temporarily forgetting he was talking about Salem herself.

The woman, fortunately for him, wasn't in the mood to kill him, however. "I don't think he meant those creatures."

**Upon doing so, he watched as they pointed out into space. He noticed nothing save for the bodies and wreckage of his ship. A faint movement from the planet below caught his attention. He immediately regretted that decision. He watched as a massive tentacle covered in bone like armor with various purple crystal like abrasions on it extended from the planet below. The colossal tentacle wrapped itself around a massive chunk of the wreckage that orbited around the planet as a few more identical colossal tentacles sprung from the planet below and grabbed other pieces. Each one slowly bringing down the wreckages they held down into the planet surface, which he had come to realize was actually a liquid of sorts that covered the entire planet. The wreckage disappeared below the surface.**

Everyone was silent after that.

The students were trying to speak, but they quite simply weren't even able to form words. Not coherent words anyway – some broken exclamations of shock and horror did ring out from the group, but none actually made sense.

Even Salem's group had no words for that. A single tentacle of those could _effortlessly_ wipe out the entirety of Vale… no, scratch that, the entirety of _every single town in the continent_ of Vale! That monster had to be _titanic_ to grab that ship!

Salem was shocked as well. To create a Grimm that big… she didn't think she would ever be able to command a spawning so immense. No, she was _sure_ she wouldn't be able to create one by herself. That monster had spawned from the pits simply because there was so much Grimm essence for it to draw from – it covered the entire planet!

No wonder the Seeding had to remain a secret. With monsters like those in her army, she'd be near unstoppable.

**_"They are…our freedom...liberation from the corpse...of the Imperium…"_**** he looked at Primaris Marine before him, unable to speak.**

**"My Lord Atriox, what shall be done of the survivors?" An officer asked, looking away from her screen. Atriox looked at her then back to the captain whom he could see was starting to fear him.**

No one could blame that captain.

Finally, Emerald regained her ability to speak, though very shakily so. "W-What was t-that_ thing_?!" she basically screeched. "A-A-And those crystals?! G-Grimm don't ha-have c-crystals in t-t-their bodies!"

Salem took a breath to calm herself before she replied. "That was _by far _the largest Grimm I have ever seen. A Grimm that could all but _eclipse_ the Emperor Hydra in terms of size." She then frowned. "As for those crystals, they naturally grow very deep into the Grimmlands, so it is not surprising if they were to have Grimm origins, or if truly massive Grimm could actually have them growing on their very bodies."

**_"Feed the all but two...to the decayed…"_**** as soon as the words were said, the creatures above immediately awoke, letting out a blood curdling inhuman screech as they began to uncurl. The sound cracking and breaking of bones could be heard as the captain watched the creatures begin to crawl towards ventilation shafts, all of them crawling in and within seconds they were gone. A dozen sleeping monstrosities gone within seconds, gone to feast.**

**The captain heard something heavy fall behind him, he slowly looked behind himself as he came face to face with one of the bipedal creatures known as a Decayed. It was almost taller than him, a creature of pure muscle with grayish like skin that was mostly covered in bone like armor with razor sharp claws on each finger. Dried blood stained most of its human like body. The face was frightening human with a bald head and sharp orange eyes that looked as if they glared into his very soul. He realized that it was the same creature that was watching him from before. Its mouth splitting in two as it stared at him. Redish Saliva drooled from its "mouth".**

_**"No...one will know…"**_

**The creature immediately lunged at the captain, who tried to fight the creature before it easily overpowered him and bit down onto his throat, ripping a chunk of it out. Blood began to pour out as the Captain tried to cover the wound, blood garbled any speech as he fell to his side.**

By now, most of them didn't even flinch at the bloody murder. They were used to it. And quite frankly, they were still trying to process the sight of those monsters, even though they could now breathe a little easier, since most were gone.

**_"You were here…"_**** a hooded Figure stated as garbled sounds came from the captain as he slowly died. The decayed slowly walked over to its master as he outstretched his left arm and opened his hand. Revealing an equally large four fingered Grimm like shadow arm that replaced the entirety of his left arm. Pieces of Power armor appeared to be fused to the entirety of the arm. The decayed spit out the chunk of captains throat onto the large palm of its master's hand. The chunk slowly being consumed by the hand. The decayed climbing onto the ceiling and vanishing within the same shaft as the others.**

The students were close to throwing up, once again. "W-What the hell is he doing?!" Weiss screeched, all her self-control going into stopping the bile rising in her throat, none left for manners.

"Perhaps that's how he creates those monsters," Cinder said, disgusted and horrified. As much as she didn't want to offend her mistress in any way, including insulting her children, that was just plain wrong. Even she could see that, and she was the one who had planned to kill hundreds of thousands just for her own gain and power!

**"My lord, how will you ensure no one will come looking for this lost ship?" The ship officer asked, having seen what her lord had done but wasn't phased by the brutality.**

**Atriox looked at her as the hooded figures took to his side once more. ****_"The Imperium...its leaders quick to jump to conclusions so easily…"_**** One spoke in the now deceased captain's voice. "****_A few...simple words...in this voice of...hail chaos…death to the corpse-emperor…and forever a traitor he will be branded by them all…"_**

"What the hell?!" Yang shouted. "Is that his Semblance?! He can zombify people?!"

"Perhaps it's just an ability he gained from his training, which then meshed with his Semblance." Salem thought about it. "Perhaps his Semblance was absorbing matter and gaining its properties in some ways, like there are Semblances that allow their owners to eat minerals to turn their skin as hard as stone. And once he began using it on alien substances, he might've gained more than he had anticipated… permanently."

"That's inhuman… and unnatural," Blake stated, horrified. "It-it shouldn't exist. He should be put down like the monster he is!"

Salem had had enough. "SILENCE!"

Her voice, so full of anger, managed to shake everyone from their horror, only to turn into fear as she glared at them all, beyond furious.

"You constantly compare me to the Salem of the future, even though you have no way of proving I could actually be that one. And yet, right after you do that, you keep insulting the _Sons of Salem_!" she growled. She knew they would think there was no reason to get that angry since it was just a misunderstanding or whatever, but her motherly anger was clouding her judgement. "Do you realize that, by your own logic, you have been insulting _my children_ nonstop?! Calling them monsters and all the insults you could come up with?!"

"J-Jeez, no need to get so worke-" Yang fell silent with a whimper when Salem's immensely powerful glare settled on her.

"Lady Salem, they were just speaking their mind foolishly because they didn't know what to think of a future so different from our own, they meant you no offence by identifying you with the Queen of the Grimm and insulting 'your' children," Cinder begged, actually begged, trying to make her realize that she had no actual reason to be angry, in the students' eyes.

Taking a deep, _deep_ breath, Salem nodded tensely and the students could breath again, albeit with difficulty.

**Atriox looked at the body of the captain, a dark aura surrounding him as small shadow moved from under his armored foot towards the body, vanishing under it. Immediately the body began to twitch sporadically, limbs twisting and bones breaking as the body began to arch its back. An eye opening, revealing them to be pitch black. He looked as if he was gasping for air as he stood up. The captain's body stood there, the ever present wound on his throat no longer pouring blood.**

**"Priests, a new vessel awaits your lord!" The officer yelled into her communicator.**

"So that's how he makes them," Neo noted, her fear having faded a bit now that she knew those creatures weren't actual zombies, but just corpses used as tools and puppets from the youngest Son of Salem. "Kind of like a possession. Fitting for the Grimm ghost theme they have going on."

"Fitting, but still creepy," Mercury mumbled, still freaked out.

**Within A few minutes later, two robed elderly men walked in, carrying the similar robe and Geist mask that the figures wore. They stripped the former captain's body of his clothing, throwing them into a pile and cleaning off the blood from his body. One began to take apart the cybernetics upon his eye, revealing the actual eye socket underneath it. The eye long since gone, only a hollow socket remained. A black mist began to escape from it as one of the priests cleaned around it. Once done, they placed the robe armor on him, saying something as they did. They finished by securely placing the mask on his face and pulling up the hood. The men bowed slightly at the former captain.**

**"My lord, your new Vessel is done." The former captain now dubbed "Vessel" simply waved its hand.**

"And once again that's seriously creepy," Mercury mumbled. "Why did he give that 'Vessel' clothes and all when those things… those 'Decayed'… didn't get any?"

"Perhaps Decayed and Vessels are made in different ways. Perhaps Vessels are more like extensions of himself with no will of their own, while Decayed are his pets and servants, and whatever small willpower they still have is focused on obeying and killing. There is quite the difference," Salem replied. "Perhaps after a while, Vessels lose their superior status once their bodies start to rot, since they still are corpses, and they become Decayed."

_'That's inhuman. It's against Mother Nature herself,'_ Pyrrha thought, disgusted and horrified beyond what she could possibly put into words.

**_"Thank you….go now…."_**** The vessel stated, the hundreds of whispers were heard once more from the new Vessel. It simply walked forward, standing besides the other Vessels. The Vessels of Atriox, The World Ender. The 10th born of Salem.**

All the students breathed a sigh of relief when the illusion disappeared, leaving them in the cafeteria once more.

"That was insane," Yang whispered, afraid to anger Salem once again.

"It was unnatural," Blake said, repeating what she said earlier. "I… I can't imagine how the people of Remnant would actually let him do something like that. It was horrible…"

"Maybe they don't know about it?" Ruby hypothesised.

"Or more likely, he is in such a position of power he can just take the tyranny route and force them to accept him, alongside the other Sons of Salem and the Grimm, under the threat of death," Weiss spat in hatred.

"_**Mmh. I see this dream has given you a lot to think about, hasn't it?**_" Khor's voice startled them out of their musings. The humanoid crystal-dragon hybrid smiled a smile full of fangs at them. "_**Perhaps you will have a breakthrough with your view of the world soon. Or perhaps you'll just turn into plotting, shaking, muttering messes full of psychopathic tendencies, out to stop the world from changing. It is all up to you, in the end.**_"

"Would you _not_ stop something as horrible as that from happening?" Ren asked forcefully. _'That Atriox fully deserves wearing the mask of that monster…'_

"_**I am not sure. But you are biased, because you cannot understand Death. And while I must admit that even I do not know the true meaning behind Life and Death, I know this – Death is Death no matter what.**_" He chuckled at their confused and angry expressions. "_**Those corpses are dead either way. How they are used may be disrespectful toward the dead, but eventually, corpses are corpses – their souls aren't there to care any longer.**_"

"How can you say that?!" Weiss exclaimed. "He turned them into… into monsters!"

Lord Khor shrugged. "_**I'll give you a little pearl of wisdom. Once upon a time, a very wise man was about to die. On his death bed, he asked for his body to be simply left in the forest, and of course his disciples protested hotly against this. 'But Master, the critters and wild animals will prey on your body!' they said. So he replied 'Then leave me with a stick beside me, so that I can fend them off.'**_" He chuckled. "_**As you can imagine, they said that he would be dead, and thus he wouldn't be able to defend himself. At this, he said 'Then why in the world should I care about what happens to my body?'. It's the same for Vessels and Decayed. The people are no more there – they can't care about their bodies any longer.**_"

"That doesn't make any sense, it's still disrespecting them!" Pyrrha exclaimed. "They are desecrating their corpses!"

Khor laughed this time. "_**Well, that's your problem, a problem of the living, not a problem of the dead. I doubt the people those corpses belonged to even know about what happened. You're the ones feeling outraged in their stead.**_" He sighed when they began protesting. "_**Well, if that's all you wanted to ask me, then I guess see you next time, and good morning to you all.**_"

And once again, they snapped awake.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Update time! For those of you who follow all my stories, next should be Watching Future Mistakes, but it might take a while since I'm only at 2k for that chapter and I need 8-10k._**

**_This commission is from azuring-galaxy, for Mika, original story by Mika. Enjoy!_**

"Hey guys," Yang greeted them as she sat down at their table, being the last one there. Not that it was really her fault, she had just gotten unlucky with the line for the food.

"Hey," everyone replied all in unison.

Yang took her usual seat, opposite to Nora and beside Blake, setting down her tray. "Today was hard, huh?" she commented, stabbing her fork into a chuck of beef of her meat-and-mushrooms Vacuan casserole. "All these dreams have been awfully distracting."

"We almost lost today's match because Pyrrha and I were so distracted!" Nora nodded energetically, inhaling her Vacuan onion breadbuns one after the other. "Even though they don't tire us out, it's really hard to focus when all I can think about are those Grimm abominations."

"Yeah, I'm just glad we didn't have to fight today," Weiss nodded, cutting her three-mushrooms omelette with her knife, not looking up from her plate. "In a way, I guess it's good that we've been eliminated. These dreams are really distracting, and fighting while distracted is never a good thing."

"Even though it took us forever to cheer Yang up," Blake quipped with a sly grin, popping a grilled crayfish tail in her mouth. "She really didn't like losing that match."

Yang rolled her eyes and chewed her beef just a bit harder. "No one likes losing." She pointed her meat-stained fork at Weiss, who raised a delicate eyebrow. "Not like Ice Queen over there took it any better."

"I just hope Penny isn't feeling bad about her loss," sighed Pyrrha, recalling how the other girl, the one who had stood by and done nothing all match, had apparently lectured Penny about the importance of winning the matches. Fortunately, the ginger hadn't looked perturbed at all, so that was a relief. She stared down at her Mistralian pastitsio and sighed again. "I just wish I had known those swords were tied to her backpack. I wouldn't have humiliated her otherwise…"

Everyone at the table winced. That was pretty true. The match had been recorded as one of the shortest ones ever, lasting only ten seconds. Penny had immediately attacked with her swords, using their impossible speed to take Pyrrha and Nora by surprise. Unfortunately for her, Pyrrha had reacted poorly to finding herself unable to dodge, and had feigned pushing the swords back with her shield so hard they had flown out of the ring… with the use of her Semblance, of course. People were so used to seeing her as the Invincible Girl that they wouldn't even question it.

That had had the unexpected side effect of throwing Penny right out of the arena, declaring her out of bonds. Nora had taken care of Ciel Soleil pretty quickly after that, sending her right the way Penny had gone.

The two of them would probably become the laughingstock of the tournament, if they weren't already.

"Don't worry, Pyrrha, knowing Penny she's probably just happy she could participate," Ruby reassured her with a smile that was only slightly ruined by the red smears of her pasta's tomato sauce. "Plus you didn't mean to make her feel bad, you just reacted!" She slurped up some more noodles before continuing with a snicker, "I can't believe people bought that move, though. I mean, you bashed her swords out of the arena and no one said anything!"

Pyrrha smiled thinly. "I'm afraid my, er, reputation might be the cause of that. My Semblance is pretty much a guaranteed win against metal-wielding opponents, especially when they don't know what is interfering with their attacks, so people have started to think I'm some kind of… well, they call me the Goddess of Victory back home." She cut and ate the first slice of her pastitsio since she'd sat down, suddenly very self-conscious. "I guess they just chalked it up to me being amazing."

"You are amazing, Pyrrha, you just aren't a wizard," Ren chuckled quietly, eating his own onion breadbuns. It was a rule for him to always eat what Nora ate, for two reasons. One, so she could just take from his plate if she was still hungry, because he didn't need much to eat anyway. And two, so that she could not steal his food if she didn't like her own. "I'm honestly surprised people didn't see through that."

Pyrrha nodded in agreement. "There are a lot of theories about my Semblance. Some say it's supernatural luck, some say it's like a forcefield that protects me, some say that it drains my opponent's fighting skill to increase mine."

"It's sad to know that people actually think the last one might be true," Weiss huffed, shaking her head. "Your Semblance may not be easy to guess, but I thought the world's best Aura experts would be better than that."

Pyrrha shook her head as well. "No, no, they are. You guys aren't the only ones who know about my Semblance, but my agent and most importantly my sponsors don't want it to become public knowledge, so anyone talking about it online is forced to remove those messages or posts and is also sued for damage to my image." Her expression saddened as she cut another slice of pastitsio. "They don't tell me much about these, but once I saw the a report. Some poor twenty-year-old girl was sued for a million Lien and spent two years in jail once she couldn't pay the money. While she was in jail, she convinced my agent to let her send me a letter of apology, where she told me she was sorry and that she learned her lesson. She had lost her job and a lot of her friends, not to mention she had to quit school, simply because she wanted a doctorate in Aura Analysis and she thought that my Semblance would make for a good thesis."

She sighed and placed her utensils down. "And so no one knows about my Semblance. Or rather, no one _talks_ about my Semblance."

Everyone at the table was looking at her with wide eyes. While a million Lien wasn't much by some of their standards -Weiss was super rich, Blake knew her family was rich, and Ruby and Yang knew their dad was pretty well-off too-, such a punishment for simply talking about a Semblance was unbelievable.

"How can they do that without breaking the law?" Blake asked, disconcerted. "They cannot privatize something like this! It's illegal. A Semblance may be something private, but no one can forbid people from speculating or analysing, and especially no one can legally persecute someone for breaking this 'rule'!"

Pyrrha shook her head. "Via loopholes. First of all, did you know the image of someone, especially someone famous, cannot be replicated without permission?" Weiss nodded alongside Blake, but the others shook their heads. "It's a law that was approved in Vale right after the Great War. Since the Academies trained young people to be Hunters, those people tended to… well, try to stand out, sometimes by wearing what at the time were considered to be indecent outfits, and because a lot of Hunters are very physically attractive both thanks to Aura and to their training. This law was made to prevent… How can I say it…" She blushed and looked away from everyone. "To prevent the use of those teenagers' appearances for pornographic purposes."

Weiss and Ruby both blushed as well, immediately checking their own outfits for any excessive amount of skin exposure or tightness around their curves.

Yang, instead, just chuckled. "Sounds fair, though I'm pretty sure that hasn't stopped many people."

"Unfortunately not, but it has greatly reduced their numbers." Pyrrha returned to cutting her food, not meeting anyone's eyes. "However, this ban gradually extended to other things. The weapons and the Semblance, for example. Both are usually unique to every Hunter and thus changing the appearance but keeping those would still enable people to recognize them somewhat, especially if they are famous. Thanks to this, my agent is legally allowed to persecute people analysing my Semblance, also because if my Semblance were to be made public I could lose part of my sponsorships." She shrugged vaguely. "I'm not too sure about that part though, it really isn't my field of expertise."

"Few Hunters are knowledgeable in law, as ironic as that may sound," Blake nodded slightly. "There's just too much injustice in the world to focus on studying the law. That's why Hunters are usually told what to do and not to do on every mission."

"Are we just going to ignore the Goliath in the room?" Ren spoke up neutrally, briefly looking up from his lunch to meet their eyes. "Lord Khor and these dreams he wants to show us. Are they real? Does he have a reason? And why now of all times?"

Everyone's expressions dropped, as did their eyes, and they went back to eating their food as the mood sobered up. Pyrrha stole a glance at the empty seat at the end of their bench, where their leader usually sat, and then sighed.

"What is there to say?" Weiss replied with a frown. "They are dreams. No one can see the future, it's not set in stone." Her hands were trembling slightly, causing the next slice of omelette to fall back on her plate. "Whoever he is, this _Khor_ must be obviously trying to disturb us to make us lose the Festival. And from the looks of it, it's working!" she snapped, stabbing the fallen slice a bit more aggressively than usual.

"Weiss, there was nothing we could've done against Coco and Yatsuhashi," Yang reminded her. While she still wasn't happy about her loss, she wasn't bitter like Weiss. "And this Lord Khor guy doesn't seem to be mean or evil. He's just weird."

"He's weird for us, and we're probably weird for him," Ruby said, idly playing with her pasta. "I don't understand why he chose now of all times for these dreams. Perhaps there _is_ no reason at all."

"She's right. It's so easy for us to assume that an entity like Lord Khor has a reason for doing everything, but perhaps he doesn't," Blake agreed, biting into another crayfish. "Perhaps he just thought about it now, and he didn't want to wait."

"It's having some very real repercussions, though," Pyrrha noted, taking another glance at the empty seat at their table.

"I doubt that's the reason why that girl has taken an interest in our Fearless Leader," Nora waved her off, happily munching on her onion breadbuns. "I mean, we're his friends so it'd be weird to flirt with him, but it's not like he's bad looking. Maybe she just took the opportunity when our teams began to hang out!"

"That doesn't explain how she was supposedly mute and Lord Khor gave her the ability to talk," Weiss replied, secretly happy for Jaune. While she didn't consider him boyfriend material for her, she was happy someone liked him. She didn't know exactly what he'd done to have Neptune talk to her at the dance, but she still owed him. Perhaps, if things with Neo went well, she might offer to pay for their first date. "Her teammates said she couldn't talk, and Neo herself asked Lord Khor why he gave her the ability to talk, so she was obviously really mute. How could someone with a dream-weaving Semblance do that?"

"Perhaps it's not a Semblance, then," Ren hypothesised wisely. "Grimm are an unexplainable mystery of Remnant – who's to say he is not another?"

"Then why did he not show himself sooner?" Weiss countered.

"I think it's safe to say that Lord Khor's existence, as shocking as it may be, is not what we should be worried about," Pyrrha cut in politely. "The future he is showing us, however… it's disturbing."

"Disturbing doesn't even come close to what I had in mind," Blake remarked darkly, picking a splinter of crayfish shell out of her teeth. "Especially after what the youngest son did, that Atriox…"

A collective shiver went through them as they remembered the horrid monsters he created, the Decayed and the Vessels.

"Can we please talk about those later?" Nora whined, her chewing slowing down. "You're gonna make me lose my appetite!"

"I thought nothing could make you lose your appetite," Weiss teased with a tiny grin.

"She's right though, I'd rather not talk about them while we eat. We should change the topic." Pyrrha knew everyone else shared her opinion, even if some were too prideful to admit it. "Like, I still can't believe no one is rebelling against this 'Salem' in that dream!"

"It's still just a dream," Blake replied, moving around the food on her plate. "It's… it's not supposed to be realistic. I mean, have you seen how the people were? Faunus equality and correct education? We don't even have it now, how could it possibly happen in a world ruled by Grimm? The only teaching they'd do would be teaching them how to hate each other, how to abuse, murder and take advantage of everyone and everything."

"Well, technically the Grimm wouldn't teach anything," Ren pointed out, pretending not to see Nora stealing one of his breadbuns. "And if you consider the Grimm simple weapons and tools instead of a faction of their own, whoever uses them is not automatically guilty of their own crimes."

"Are you seriously defending those monsters?" Weiss whisper-yelled, staring at him with a mix of anger and incredulity. "They're nothing but murderers and tyrants!"

The boy didn't look fazed by her anger in the slightest. "If we look at it from a subjectively point of view then yes, they are monsters. However, if we take a step away from our own prejudices, perhaps we could-"

"_Prejudices?!_" Blake hissed furiously, pushing aside her seafood to glare at her fellow brunette. "The best definition of 'Grimm' is, taken word by word from the Valean Etymology Vocabulary, 'monsters of pure darkness that seek to destroy and kill all human life on the planet. They have been the historical bane of humanity since the dawn of time and are currently our world's greatest problem'. It also goes on to explain that their atrocity is so great, that calling someone 'Grimm' is an actual crime that people can sue you for, up to a fine of five thousands Lien, for calumny. I think they are so hated for very solid reasons!"

"The Grimm? Yes they are, and nothing will ever change my mind." Ren thought to Atriox and the helmet he was wearing. Prejudices or not, he still hated how anyone could wear something fashioned after that monster. But he knew that what he felt toward the Knucklelavee, many felt toward Grimm in general, so he tried to contain his loathing. "But those who use Grimm for themselves cannot be blamed for those crimes. Using the sword of a serial killer does not make you a murderer, after all."

"Okay, then let's take a look at the wielders." Yang gave him a cheerful fake smile before scowling, eyes turning red, and slamming a fist on the table. "Monstrous Grimm abominations that kill and destroy for fun, to conquer worlds for their 'mother' to subjugate, and only ever care about themselves and _maybe_ their own soldiers. They would murder innocent men, women and children for their own selfish goals. They _have_. But hey, let's all be happy with our new tyrants, it's easier that way!" she snapped angrily and pushed away her plate too. "Accepting a tyranny is the coward's way out. Only weak cowards would do that. A real Hunter would _never_ bow to a tyrant."

"And yet, Jaune apparently did. Not only that, but he fought tooth and nail for them," Pyrrha replied, her voice having a steely undertone that could cut even better than the well-sharpened knife in her hand. "He _died_ for them, fully believing he was doing the right thing."

Ruby kept staring at her plate, not really seeing it either. That was the real problem, wasn't it? As much as she didn't like the Grimm or those who allied themselves with them, Jaune had been there for them as well. And say what you want about the clumsy doofus, but he had a heart of gold and would never ally himself with someone he considered evil. Especially he wouldn't save them from this 'Wizard' and wouldn't die for them. So were they really good? Or did they just trick him into believing they were good?

And then Yang had to go and mess everything up.

"Well, no offence, but it's Jaune we're talking about," Yang shrugged. "He's a good guy but he's not exactly someone I'd trust with watching my back in battle. Not unless I have my back to a wall."

An increasingly cold silence fell on the group. While what Yang meant wasn't exactly _wrong_ since Jaune's skill level was indeed far below theirs and thus he wouldn't be able to actually protect their backs in battle, it had been the wrong thing to say.

"Let's go, guys, I think we've overstayed our welcome," Pyrrha stated, composed but clearly angry. She rose, taking her plate with her. Ren and Nora stood up as well, though Nora had a saddened expression on her face. "I'm not hungry any more, anyway."

"Guys, come on, Yang didn't mean that," Ruby tried to fix the problem, but the three didn't change their expressions.

"No, Ruby, I fully meant that," the blonde continued, still angry for Ren's insinuation earlier and now also irritated by what she perceived was an overreaction on their part. "Jaune's a great guy but he's not Hunter material. He's not skilled and his grades are just slightly above average. We've been trained our whole lives and he didn't. We're just on different levels. If he's lucky, he'll end up being hired as a bouncer or something, while we're going to fight Grimm to defend Remnant. He'll probably even get paid better. But he's not skilled, so no, I would _not_ trust him to watch my back. And so no, I don't think he'd oppose a tyranny, not without people like us backing him up."

NPR's eyes narrowed and even Nora gained a cold look on her face. Ren was the one to speak. "You've had the good fortune of having received personal and advanced training from either renowned Hunters or expensive tutors. Not everyone has. Beacon is here for _everyone_, not just the privileged ones." He nodded to the others and started walking away. "Besides, following your own reasoning, Pyrrha shouldn't trust anyone here to watch _her_ back. Last time I checked, she could still defeat all of RWBY without losing any Aura."

With that parting jab, the three left, probably off to find their leader and drag him to have lunch somewhere else.

Yang heavily sat back down, playing with her food but not really interested in it any longer. "I'm just trying to protect him," she mumbled. Her irritation faded quickly as she realized she'd just driven off three of her best friends. "Ugh, these dreams are messing everything up. First the match, now this, what's next?"

"Don't jinx it," Blake mumbled tiredly. She lifted another crayfish and stared at it. "You weren't wrong, Yang, but you _were_ rude about it. Besides, I think Jaune would be the type to try and fail to stop a tyranny, rather than not try at all."

Ruby looked at Weiss, her last teammate, with a pleading look in her eyes, but she too let her down.

"He's learning quickly, but he's still far behind us," she noted with a sigh. "If he were to fight a tyranny like this 'Salem's, it could only lead to his death." She lowered her eyes to her plate and added in a smaller voice, "and I don't want that."

Ruby sighed too and returned to staring at her food. She glanced up to see the three who had just left the table reach the hall's door just in time for Jaune himself to hurry through and stop dead in his tracks at seeing their expressions. She watched sadly as the boy glanced at them and then left with his team, not even bothering to grab lunch.

Once they were out of sight, Ruby took her plate and her tray and stood up. She wasn't hungry any more.

/-/

"You need more practice, not more techniques, for the time being. You don't have a good enough grasp on the basis yet. If you tried to train on higher levels now, the only thing you'd do would be confuse yourself. There's no point in trying to achieve today something you'll reach eventually. A lot about your fighting style needs work, but you have the motivation for it. You don't need help working out but I can still give you some workout regimes. Oh, and some diets, but Beacon only serves healthy stuff and Aura does miracles so you don't really need them."

Jaune nodded, listening attentively as Mercury explained to him what he needed to work on, which was basically everything, and how he should go about it. There was a tiny little voice in the back of his head that kept telling him that his friends never did anything like this, while Mercury was basically a stranger and yet here he was, but he pushed it aside, knowing it was just tiredness and irritation talking.

"Do you think my weapons are okay?" he asked. Ruby had liked them, but Ruby liked all weapons, and everyone else had much newer or high-tech weapons Crocea Mors could never hope to match. "I mean, they're pretty old, going back to the Great War, but they still work so…"

Mercury shrugged and bit into his slice of quiche pie, savouring the cheesy onion taste for a second before speaking again. "The weapons don't make the Hunter. Sure they can come in handy, but eventually they're just tools. I'll admit yours might need some modernizing, perhaps reinforcing alloys or something, but if you're okay with knowing it might break someday, even those aren't strictly needed."

"But if you want, I can find someone in Vale who has low prices," Cinder said from her place beside Jaune. As the respective leaders, she had insisted for him to sit beside her, and had offered Pyrrha to take the seat on his opposite side, but Neo had beaten the champion to it with a truly innocent imp-like grin. "And I can help you create new designs, if you wish. It would be a pity to improve your weapon without adding some aesthetic touch to it, wouldn't it?"

As much as she hated to admit it, Cinder found herself _very_ intrigued by Jaune. Not in any romantic sense and not as friends either. He was just interesting. Obviously undertrained yet in Beacon, a school she knew boasted about accepting all students as long as they had the passion for it, but that unfortunately only actually accepted skilled students in its ranks. They maintained a public façade of being benign but the truth was that Ozpin wanted his own powerful army, not good-hearted weaklings.

Jaune Arc was untrained, but he had a determination that made her wonder why he hadn't gotten more skilled in the past. His weakness would've made more sense had it been like Cardin Winchester, who despite learning during the lessons lacked the drive to become a Huntsman, but instead Jaune really wanted to succeed. It didn't matter if he did it for a noble or for a stupid reason, in her eyes he should've been more skilled.

She was intrigued by that. What could've held him back from training before Beacon? Perhaps his family disagreed with his dream? That was a possibility, a very strong one at that, but Jaune had mentioned his family before and he never sounded bitter or remorseful, so she didn't think that was the case. As she said, he was interesting.

He seemed to stop and think about it. "Well, honestly I think I should wait a little more before taking any decision. I can't undo it once I redesign it so I think it's better if I wait until I'm sure."

"That's surprisingly wise," Emerald commented, not looking up from her turkey sausages in chilly sauce. She cut another slice and popped it in her mouth, seemingly not caring about the burn of the sauce. "Most students here are only interested in getting better at fighting _and_ getting better weapons as they go, making full use of the student discount. You're the first I see who doesn't already have a top-notch weapon and is in no hurry to upgrade it."

Jaune chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. "Yeah… a lot of people here seem very focused on aesthetics, no offence to anyone. And they're not afraid to use money. Ren and Nora are the only ones I've seen actually care about how much they spend."

Ren, sitting on the opposite side of the table, nodded, quietly eating his dinner. Beside him Nora, mouth still full of chewed meatballs, grinned enthusiastically. "It's better than way," she confirmed cheerfully. "We don't need so many things anyway, and it helps us learn how to watch our spending for when we'll graduate and the school won't be here to feed us any more."

"That's true, I can see a lot of the students having financial troubles in their first years of being Hunters," Emerald agreed, looking genuinely surprised by the redhead's observation. "Of course, most of them come from rich families so they will be easily supported, but left to their own, I can count on two hands the students who'd manage – among all years."

"That's the unfortunate truth behind the Academies," Cinder sighed, shaking her head. "They may look like they are fair to everyone, but eventually the rich and influential get a privileged treatment anyway. Which is realistic since that's how the world works, but which really sucks for the students who don't have the benefit of a wealthy family." She glanced at the table two rows down, where Team RWBY was dining alone. "I can't see Weiss ever doing housechores or watching her spending, to be honest."

"No one could," Mercury mumbled, taking another bite of his pie. "She doesn't really look like someone who'd survive without friends or houseservants."

"Mercury, be nice!" Emerald chastised him. She instinctively reached out to elbow him in the side, but he was sitting on the other end of the bench from her, which meant she'd have to reach over both Ren and Nora to do it.

"I'm sure Weiss would learn how very quickly," Jaune waved him off. "Though I can't say she'd be happy about it."

"Who ever is?" Neo snorted, stabbing her cutlet a few times before ripping a piece off. "Being an adult sucks. Work all day just to pay for basically being alive, then sleep and repeat, with only a few hours of free time every day. It's just unfair. Not like we need to do that many hours anyway!"

"Actually, we do," Pyrrha countered politely. "Perhaps not everyone needs to work eight hours, but it maximises the efficiency. True, I can't say I'd be happy with spending almost fifty hours every week working, especially if I don't like my job, but if people stopped working our society would fall and we would fall with it. We are too dependant on our society to survive without it. And while it is true that our society is progressively getting worse, with corruption and nepotism being almost common in some places, and nonsensical laws being passed all the time, but it's the only one we have, and with the Grimm at our doorstep we cannot change it."

"Speaking of changing society… didn't the society you saw in your dream reach some kind of utopia?" Jaune asked, glancing around to gauge their reactions. As he expected, most of them stiffened at the mention of the Grimm-ruled society. "I mean, sure, Grimm abominations and all, but the people were happy, right?"

Ren sighed and shook his head. "It's impossible to determine if it's a happiness born of actual joy or if it's a happiness born of ignorance, of not knowing the horrors of the past and the present and simply living in a glass house built by Salem to prevent a rebellion. I wish it were the former, but we cannot rule out the latter."

"You could always ask Khor," Jaune offered.

"I don't think Lord Khor would give us a clear answer," Cinder replied with a frown, remembering the entity's mannerism and behaviour. "It's probably something he wants us to figure out ourselves instead of asking for the truth to a higher being. Besides, if we were to do that, we'd be completely accepting his words as true… which is exactly what Ren said might be going on in that dream. A glass house where they only know what Salem wants them to know. If we want true answers, we have to get them ourselves."

"So… do you think you're going to get another dream tonight?" Jaune asked nonchalantly, eating one of his nuggets. "That'd be cool."

"Definitely cooler than a Hunter trainee eating chicken nuggets," Mercury commented with a grin. Cinder gave him a warning glance, but Jaune smiled.

"They're really good, try one!" Jaune offered his plate to the grey-haired boy, knowing that picking one up with hands or fork would be bad table manners. Trying to woo Weiss had at least gotten some good side effects. "But be careful. They're pretty strong."

"Strong?" Mercury stabbed one with his fork and popped it in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. Then his eyes went comically wide and he swallowed immediately, trying to get it down as quickly as possible. As soon as the food was no more in his mouth, he started to cough like there was no tomorrow.

He reached out for his glass, but Jaune pushed a piece of bread toward him instead. "Eat this, it'll get the spiciness away more quickly."

Thankfuly, Mercury tore a chunk of bread with his teeth and began chewing, relaxing once the chilly taste lessened to a bearable level. He swallowed and ripped off another chunk, glaring at Jaune. "How the hell do you eat those?!"

"Valean chicken rolled in breadcrumbs and then cooked in oil spiced up with Vacuan death pepper, they're one of the traditional foods of central Vacuo and my family liked travelling during the holidays," Jaune explained with a smile, eating another nugget without even wincing. "The death pepper is not edible since it's _too_ chilly, it'd probably set you on fire, but cooking stuff in its oil gives them a good spiciness without making them impossible to eat… if you are used to chilly foods, anyway."

Mercury coughed again and put down the bread in favour of his pie. "Stupid Vacuan foods…"

Emerald smirked at his pain before glancing at Jaune's plate. She liked spicy foods, but she had a limit to how much burn she wanted. Maybe she'd try those the next time they had dinner together and if she didn't like them, she'd just dump them on Jaune's plate.

"So, do you think you're gonna have another dream tonight?" Jaune asked as if Mercury hadn't just almost died.

Pyrrha was the one to answer. "I believe we will for a while. Not even Lord Khor knows for how long we'll have to do this… Which doesn't reassure me as much as I'd like."

Jaune reached over Neo and patted her shoulder, with the bicoloured girl pouting underneath. "Don't worry, it'll be fine!"

/-/

Ruby was not surprised to find herself in the Beacon-like dreamscape once again. While it hadn't happened too many times already, it was clear that it was going to continue until Lord Khor decided to stop. So unless he had summoned them there to tell them it was over, she was fairly confident in her assumption they were there to see more of that future.

Speaking of that future, her face fell when she remembered the disaster at lunch. She still felt that Yang's temper had gotten the best of her and had ruined everything, but after trying to talk her team through it all day had worn her out. They were all adamant that Jaune was a great guy, really nice and all, but he was too weak to protect himself, much less others. And while they said that it wasn't a fault since all civilians were like that, she knew it would still hurt him greatly to hear.

She remembered the mini pep-talk she'd given him weeks prior, when he was feeling down and he thought he wasn't good enough. She didn't like to see her friends so down but Weiss, Blake and Yang all gave her indisputable, solid facts to support their opinions!

She hated that she didn't have anything to reply with, just because they were focusing on one aspect of Jaune's abilities and personality to prevent her from using his other skills as proof he wasn't weak. They were overblowing one single argument!

It was true that Jaune wasn't _as skilled as_ they were, but that was normal, obvious even. She and Yang received direct training from their Dad _and_ Qrow, both teachers at Signal. The two were usually impartial teachers but they still taught them at home too, which gave them an unfair advantage. Weiss, enough said, her family could pay the best tutors in Atlas, if not the whole world, to teach her, plus she had a sister who was a high-ranking Atlas military officer and thus could both teach her and have her taught by people she knew. And Blake had been in the White Fang, which meant she had combat experience, and had been taught by their leader, a man Blake often described as invincible.

It wasn't hard to see Ren's point. Maybe they were prodigies, maybe they trained harder than most, but they still reached that level of skill only because they had had the opportunity to do so. Whenever Jaune talked about his dream to become a Hunter and spoke about his past, he always sounded really frustrated, which probably meant he hadn't gotten those chances.

Maybe Weiss's initial opinion of him had been right, and he was just a guy who just up and decided to become a Hunter when he was seventeen and never trained, but Jaune had faced Grimm without fear (first encounter with gigantic Death Stalker notwithstanding and besides, even Yang had been discouraged by its sheer size, so it was only natural) and had never given up, which kind of ruled out the possibility of him being a Hunter on a whim.

Ruby really wanted to think that Jaune would become a great Hunter. Sure, maybe he'll never quite reach their own skill level, but that didn't matter. She felt that nowadays Hunters focused a bit too much on the sheer power rather than on the intentions.

Her dad would always be willing to help people train, it was one of the reasons why he became a teacher in the first place, but for example her uncle Qrow… well, to say he was cynical would've been an understatement. He absolutely loathed those, in his words, 'fools with a sword and a dream', because he thought they were arrogant and naive for believing they had what it took to survive. As much as she loved him, she was aware that he'd then gone against his own philosophy to help her train, because otherwise she would've been just another of those so-called fools.

Yang had probably taken more after her uncle than her father. It also didn't help that after Summer died, she'd basically been left to raise Ruby for quite some time. That sense of abandonment was what had led her to take more after Qrow, who had also saved her and Ruby when she foolishly wen to look for Raven. So while she didn't approve nor agree, Ruby could understand why Yang was so hard on Jaune when it came to his combat skills.

Weiss wasn't very surprising. She was hard on everyone when it came to just about anything. She had been lightening up a lot, but it was still a long way to go and she supposed Jaune's flirting in the first months hadn't helped. Plus with all her expensive education, she probably thought everyone should have a great training to enter a combat Academy.

Blake was a bit more surprising, and the most disappointing, if she had to be honest. She had been a member of the White Fang, and organization made by, in her words, oppressed Faunus misled into believing that violence was the answer to their problems. By her own words, they weren't fighters, but normal people. Ruby was disappointed to see that despite fighting for and _alongside_ people with less skill than Jaune, she still didn't consider Jaune Hunter material. She supposed it was _because_ she'd seen how easily untrained people got hurt, but it was still disappointing.

She sighed. There was nothing she could do now.

And now that they were back in that dream, they would be forced to interact with NPR again, and she was pretty sure that wouldn't go well.

"Here we go again," she heard Weiss mutter as the four of them, plus the usual other eight, appeared in the Beacon hall, or at least the dream's version of it.

"Do you think Lord Khor will show up for this, or do you think it's just gonna start up on its own?" Mercury asked out loud, looking around.

"_**Even though it is not necessary, I have decided to show myself this time as well.**_" As usual the voice of the godlike being appeared before his body did, but soon the dragon-like humanoid was standing in the hall with them. "_**Now, I believe there are a few things we need to address.**_"

"Yes, for exa-"

Khor cut Weiss off. "_**First, you still haven't asked Jaune Arc about his friend Nokris, have you?**_" Their silence was telling enough. "_**Just as I thought. Now, do you have any questions?**_"

"Ahem," Weiss cleared her throat, slightly irritated for having been interrupted so rudely. "I believe we do." She glanced at NPR, who stared back at her with quizzical frowns on their faces. "In this future you're showing us, what exactly was Jaune's involvement?"

Lord Khor turned to her and she found herself staring up at him, damn her short stature. "_**Hell if I know,**_" he said simply, shocking everyone.

"Wait, how can you _not_ know?!" Mercury exclaimed. "Aren't you a god or something?!"

"_**Or something. It's honestly really hard to define me,**_" he waved the boy off. "_**And well, I did already mention how I do not know everything about this future. I am showing it to you, but this does not mean I have infinite knowledge about it, now does it? It's ridiculous to even entertain that idea. Now, any more questions?**_"

"Yes, I'd have one," Ren spoke up, stepping forward. Khor turned to him with an amused smile on his face. "Are the people in that world truly happy? Or is it just an illusion created by Salem?"

"_**People choose to be happy. If they are happy with not knowing then it is true happiness, if they are happy only because they're told that they have to, then it's not,**_" the supernatural entity replied with a shrug. "_**And as I said, I don't know everything about that future, so I really cannot answer that. I can tell you this – they are certain they are happy. Now, if this means they are, then yes. If this just means, to you, that Salem coerced and tricked them into living an illusion, then no. Take your own conclusions.**_"

Cinder nodded, having expected a similar answer.

Salem frowned slightly at the offensive remark, but let it go. It wasn't something she'd be ashamed of doing, so she supposed she deserved it.

"Lord Khor, you said you don't know everything about that future… how much do you know about our present?" Ruby spoke up, stepping up as well and getting a couple of odd looks from the others.

"_**Quite a lot. One might even say I know all about your world, but that would be an exaggeration,**_" he chuckled slightly, shaking his head at what he perceived was a silly thought. "_**Why? What do you wish to ask me?**_"

"Will Jaune become a great Hunter?" she asked, determination ringing in her voice. Her friends gave her even odder looks, recalling the discussion they'd had during lunch, and NPR frowned slightly, not sure whose side she was on.

Lord Khor scratched his chin. "_**Define 'great Hunter', if you would. There are many ways to be great. He has the potential to become one, that's for sure, but almost everyone does. He has the heart and passion, but again that's not exactly unique.**_"

Ruby frowned. "Does he become a known Hunter who's saved a lot of people?"

The entity shrugged and stopped scratching his chin. "_**He could. As I told you before, the future is up to you, not me. There are futures where he becomes one, and futures where he doesn't. Sometimes it's thanks to you, sometimes it's your fault if his dream is realized or crushed. Sometimes it's not.**_" He snorted in amusement. "_**Trust me, there are all kinds of futures out there. For him, for you, for everyone. It's impossible to determinate which one will happen, because even if I were to tell you, you might act differently because of that knowledge, and change the future. I'm sorry for speaking so much and answering so little.**_"

Ruby nodded, slightly saddened, but then she smiled. "This still means that Jaune _can_ become a great Hunter!" she exclaimed, looking at her teammates. "He just has to train!"

Yang rolled her eyes. "No kidding, that's kind of how people get stronger, sis."

"_**Well, now that we've addressed this, I believe it may be time to start,**_" stated Lord Khor, rubbing his hands with an unsettling grin on his face.

His form started to fade away like it usually did, and no one tried to stop him. While they couldn't say they'd gotten used to him and his personality, it wasn't something new any more. Once he was fully gone, around them the Beacon hall disappeared, and the illusion of the future appeared once again as they braced themselves for whatever was about to be shown.

**It was late, she should have been asleep a long time ago but due to her duties, she had to miss a class and now she had to go over all that she missed from it. "Agh, I already know all this!" Thara exclaimed, looking down at the hologram that floated on her desk. She moved her hand across it, showing a chart. A recording began to play, one she tried to skip but was unable to. Damn locks.**

Several people snorted. Students trying to skip over homework or study was a tale as old as time, but it seemed like Thara's teachers knew how to counter that. Of course, students could still just not listen, but that was inevitable.

**"****...here we have a regular human standing about 6 feet…" the recording said, a half naked holo image of a man standing was shown. "...Here we have a Space Marine or known as in the Imperium Tongue as the Adeptus Astartes, standing at 7.5 feet…" The next holo image to appear was a much larger and more muscular man, standing next to the other man. Various scars adorned his body as she could see the access ports that were surgically implanted into his body.**

"What is that?" Nora asked, pointing at the access ports.

"Probably something related to that armour of theirs," Weiss hypothesised. "Unless they are part machine, of course."

**"****Ugh…" she hated the fact that she had to go over something she already knew. It was drilled into her head the difference between a human, A space Marine and Primaris Marine.**

**"****Now we have here a Primaris Astartes or known to us as Primaris Marines…" Another holoimage of a man showed, though he was much taller and bit more muscular than the Space Marine. "Primaris marines stand around 8 feet tall with the exception of Lord Ares who stands around 10 to 11 feet." An image of her Uncle popped up, showing the vast difference in height and strength. "Primaris Marines are both stronger and bigger than their Space Marine cousins, soon to replace the Standard Space Marine soon..." she turned off the hologram, it was gonna get into the history and creation of the Space Marines then The Primaris Marines.**

"Now that would've been boring," Ruby sighed in relief. "Though I'm surprised she could turn it off, but not skip it."

"She probably just shut it down like a computer or something," Mercury commented. "There are lots of ways to circumvent limitations."

**"****Already know this crap, I'll just copy the others notes later for this class." she thought to herself as she stretched. She didn't need to know any of that, she already saw how they were created. Atriox ensured that.**

Everyone shivered at the mention of the youngest brother. "Is it just me who can't see that guy teaching anyone anything?" Yang tried to lighten the atmosphere, but no one laughed.

"I can see him teaching people how to torture and kill," Blake growled under her breath. Ren heard her, and he was tempted to agree.

**Atriox.**

Everyone shivered again.

**His name alone sent a shiver down her back as she got ready for bed. She didn't like talking about him or even being near him. She shouldn't feel like that about family...but him? She just couldn't help it. He terrified her.**

**She laid down, getting comfortable as she drifted off to sleep.**

**She couldn't move. She felt like a statue as the sounds of battle raged around her. Thara saw familiar faces as her vision began to become clear. Her vivid green eyes scanned the entirety of the battlesite before she caught sight of her uncle Nokris, kneeling on the ground as he clutched his side. His armor, vastly different from the one he currently wore, was damaged and riddled with scorch Marks. The power armor was white, with gold trim, the original colors of the Sons of Salem chapter before her Grandfather's death. The helmet on his head was just a standard Primaris Marine helmet, nothing like his unique one that he wore. She saw people running towards him, she yelled out but no sound came. She thought they were gonna attack him only to see them get in a defensive position around him, firing randomly into whatever was attacking them as some tried to help the wounded super warrior.**

"Wait, what is this?!" Weiss exclaimed, shocked by the sudden change of scenery. "Are we somewhere else? What just happened?!"

"Did we seriously started dreaming of a girl _dreaming_ about this battle?" Neo commented, feeling quite confused in addition to startled. She glanced around. "This battle is old… they aren't in their Grimm armour or anything, it's just a normal battle. What is happening? Is she remembering something? Or it is her Semblance?"

"Both are quite possible, although we cannot rule out that she might have been brought there by an entity, just like Lord Khor did with us," Salem explained, frowning at the illusion. For some reason, she couldn't see what they were fighting, which only served to unnerve her more. "Perhaps we will find out if we wait."

"Yeah, not really keen on seeing any more battles here," Nora said, raising a hand, to which Ruby, Yang, Blake and Pyrrha all raised their hands too. "You guys want to see this?"

Cinder shrugged, her hands firmly by her side. "It will probably bring us valuable information," she replied, trying to convey a sense of panic she wasn't really feeling. "And perhaps find out more about this future of ours."

"She's right, as much as I hate to see this, it could prove to be an incredible source of information," Weiss agreed with the amber-eyed woman. "So, even though I really wish that weren't the case, I think we should try to pay attention. We can't stop it even if we tried anyway."

**Before she could ponder more, the entire area became clear. A massive battle was being raged in an area she couldn't recognize at first. She watched as Ares walked forward, firing a bolster pistol at the unseen enemy as he limped forward. But what surprised her was that he wasn't his towering height but around the same as other Primaris marines! Not only that but his face! It didn't have many scars and his skin wasn't the deathly white like it actually is! It was normal human skin, albeit a tannish color but nothing like Queen Mother Salem! What was going on? Millions of questions ran through her head but that stopped when she saw more of Ares…**

**Weapons. Various hunter weapons were embedded all over armor, sinking deep as blood trickled from the various places the weapons were lodged in. His armor was falling apart as he fell to his knee, never stopping his intense barrage of bolt fire. Only stopping to reload. More people came to his side as others ran past him, firing at an enemy she couldn't even see! It was far too blurry for her! But she saw the soldiers fighting alongside, wearing a uniform she instantly recognized. **

"Wait a second, why is Ares so small?" Yang asked before correcting herself when the others gave her weird looks. "I mean, look at him, sure he's big and tall for a normal human but he's not the giant monster of a man we saw earlier!"

Salem nodded slowly. "It did say he used to be the smallest and frailest at first," she pointed out, recalling his past descriptions. "Perhaps we will find out."

"Sucks to be her," snickered Nora. Once again everyone turned to give her deadpans. "She wanted to skip on the history of the Marines, and now she's stuck dreaming about it anyway!"

"That is kinda funny," Mercury admitted reluctantly. "In a slightly sadistic sort of way, but funny."

**"Old war uniforms! These are old war Remnant guards! Like in the history books!" She thought as one soldier pulled out a sword, throwing it on the ground as he sprayed a sort of silicone like spray on Ares' wound. **

**"All ships begin teleporting your lords now! Save as many guards as you can!" She heard a voice yell. Her eyes widening as she immediately knew who that voiced belonged to. She looked at the direction where Nokris was, seeing someone standing above him. What was left of a cape flowed in the wind as his shield was raised defensively and his sword tightly held in the other, ready to strike whatever was attacking him. His armor too was damaged albeit more than the others. She ran. Ran as fast she could to him.**

"Who's that?" Emerald asked, trying to see if she could recognize the guy, but it was too hazy and fuzzy, like looking through semi-opaque glass. "I can't see him well, it's like this dream purposefully blurs his image to prevent me from seeing him, because all the other soldiers are perfectly clear to me."

"It's probably exactly that," replied Salem, frowning slightly as she looked around. "Apparently this battle takes place _before_ the insignia of these 'Sons of Salem' became the Grimm, when they looked like knights still."

"That explains the lack of Grimm," noted Cinder, nodding in agreement. "Without the Grimm generals, they wouldn't be able to control Grimm into serving the army."

**She ignored the battle. Ignored the fact that she ran through people like a ghost. But she couldn't Ignore the fact that whatever they were fighting started to form, monsters. That was the only description she could give them. They were space marines, precursors to the Primaris Marines but they were wrong. They looked mutated or something. Some had large claws for arms, dark red skin with what looked bone protruding out. Some looked to have their armor fused to their very flesh, demon-like faces on their Pauldrons and various other demon-like faces on their armor. Some of the faces looked alive and even moved! She ran past one, he had tentacles where his left arm should be, various eye balls scattered all over his armor, each blinking one a time. She swore one looked at her for a brief moment. But what sickened her more was what some had strapped to their armor. Body parts. Rotting heads from Guardsmen of the Imperium hung from their waists. Some had torsos strapped to their pauldrons with hooked chains or had entire bodies impaled on spikes on their armor.**

Weiss, Pyrrha, Blake and Yang all ran to a corner and threw up, while the others recoiled in fright and horror. "What are those things?!" Nora screeched, startled by their horrid appearance. "Other Decayed?!"

"These look different. They're not dead, they're monsters but they're not reanimated corpses," Mercury noted, his assassin training immediately kicking in. "Perhaps they've been subjected to some sort of experiment…"

"Or more likely a radiation, or a widespread poison in the air or the water supply, that mutated them so radically," Cinder corrected, flinching when one of the monsters ran through her as if it was made of smoke. "But what happened for something like this to have been created?"

Salem shook her head. That was either the result of magic, or of science beyond what she thought was possible. No existing material or chemical reaction in the entire world could twist and corrupt human beings so much without killing them.

**Among the monstrous marines were regular guardsmen, their armor was filthy and tattered. Looking more like barbarians than soldiers. They too looked monstrous. Some had their faces carved with symbols, their armor was covered in fresh blood. She didn't want to look at them. Some had the skin on their face flayed off, showing the muscle and bone underneath! They were screaming and yelling! As if they were enjoying this. Enjoying the mass slaughter of the attacking Remnant guard. She saw A remnant guard have his arm cut off by the chain sword of one of these blood guardsmen, only for the chainsword to get embedded onto his head as it tore through his helmet and onto his flesh. Others were torn apart by the Space Marines, she watched as one grabbed a wounded guardsmen and tore him in two with a laugh. These weren't human. These were just monsters. Monsters that brutally slaughtered the Remnant Guard but still, they were having trouble fighting them off. **

Ren, Nora, Ruby and Emerald all ran off to throw up as well. Only Mercury, Neo, Cinder and Salem remained, and even though they were more than used to violence and blood, even they recoiled slightly at the sight of the massacre.

"Is it normal for girls her age to have these dreams?" Neo questioned, only half joking.

"Perhaps she was indeed brought there by some other entity like Lord Khor," Salem mused, frowning. "It's difficult to dream of something so far in the past, without having some kind of magic to do it."

**She nearly threw up at the sight but she had to run. Run to him. She watched as he bisected one of these monster marines with his sword. She watched as Grimm attacked the monstrous Space Marines, a beowolf lunged at one only for a Marine to grab it by the throat mid lung and slam it into the ground. A beringel rushed another, only to be locked in a stalemate as the mutated marine managed to grab its hands to stop it from grabbing him, pushing it back. Though the guardsmen were not having such luck, Beowolves tore apart their numbers. She ran past all this, not wanting to look at the battle. Not at these monsters. Not at this...evil!**

"The guardsmen or the Grimm?" Yang tried to joke, but she had vomit smeared on her mouth and a bitter taste on her tongue, which kind of drained by enthusiasm behind that joke.

"What do you think?" Cinder replied, rolling her eyes at her pathetic attempt at making them laugh.

**"...you are the new Overlord…" she barely heard him say to Nokris. Their conversation became more clear as she neared him. **

**"...the children are safe….ensure they become marines as well….Overlord Nokris….**

**"No! Jaune you are!" Nokris yelled back. Thara ran up to them, confirming herself it was him. Her grandfather, Jaune Arc! His armor was more damaged than she had seen. It was falling apart, revealing the circuitry and body suit they wore underneath. His helmet was so damaged it revealed a part of his face; ocean blue eyes focused on the monsters as locks of blond hair were visible as well. Jaune cut down another monster as he spoke. **

"Jaune?!"

The shout was so loud it echoed in the open battlefield and for a second the dream-illusion rippled and unfocused, as if disturbed by the sound.

Everyone had a different reaction to the news of who exactly that man was, but even then they were all also very similar.

They were scared for him, because he was bleeding, because he was surrounded, because he had just passed his title off to Nokris, which probably meant he didn't think he was going to make it out of there. And they were also shocked, because he showcased a level of skill that was simply incredible. Even the ones who never stopped believing in him had a hard time accepting that. However, that notion only worsened their worry, because if even with all his skill he had gotten fatally injured, then what was he fighting against?

Salem and her group had mixed feelings about it.

Mercury surprised himself, to be honest, because he'd always thought the guy was a loser, but the conversation they had during dinner had slightly changed his view of the teen. Not by much, but the assassin had still found it pleasant to be able to teach what he knew, especially to such an eager student. Emerald was a more empathic person than he was, so she did feel sorry for all those soldiers, but in a way she was less attached to the knight. She was actually more worried about Ares, who apparently had married her in that world, or someone with her surname at least.

Neo was the least affected, but she did frown. While she didn't care if he lived or died, she'd met the guy and chatted with him. He wasn't a friend, but he wasn't her enemy either. Seeing him injured and fighting for his life after speaking to him that very evening was slightly unsettling. Cinder was feeling conflicted too, because while she didn't care about the boy, he was still incredibly important to the future and to her mistress… and he was interesting. She was going to solve the mystery behind Jaune Arc's past and she knew that to do so she'd have to get to know the guy. Plus looking at Salem she could tell she was worried for him, and she always followed her mistress's example.

Salem was trying to hide her feelings, because she knew they would bring nothing but bitterness if she were to let them out. Beside, she didn't even know the guy, she'd just been told about him. She just wished she could see her interactions with him before he died, to see what her future self felt towards him and if she really thought of him as a son, or if she was just using him… which was highly probable, in her opinion.

**"Nokris! You must ensure none of these damn monsters ever make it out of the Remnant sector! Destroy their ship! I'll make sure the ones here die…" he proclaimed. Thara looked at the extent of his wounds. She saw various places where something had cut through his armor. Burns all over. But then she saw it, a spear or some kind was embedded into his chest. It was red and gold in appearance and it appeared to have almost ran him through! Grievous wounds laced the entirety of the front of his body! But despite his injuries he still fought.**

"THAT'S MY SPEAR!"

"PYRRHA?!"

Chaos once again _exploded_ among the students as they noticed the weapon stuck in Jaune's body. Pyrrha had her hands on her mouth, trying to fight back the bile that was rising in her throat, and tears were already filling her eyes. Her teammates were shocked speechless, staring at the spear as if they couldn't believe their eyes – which they actually couldn't, because the notion of Pyrrha trying to kill Jaune was simply ridiculous.

…almost as ridiculous as a friendly Grimm…

…which existed in that world.

Team RWBY was in turmoil. It should've been stupid to even just _think_ that Pyrrha would harm him willingly, much less try to kill him, yet for some reason it should've also been stupid to even think that Jaune would ever ally himself with the Grimm, and yet there he was.

Had they fought against each other because of that?!

"Calm down, it's too blurry to tell if it really is yours," Cinder reassured the girl, but it was clear she was talking to everyone. "And it's impossible to know if it was wielded by you, or if someone else took it and used it."

"Perhaps someone killed you and then went after Jaune," Neo offered her hypothesis, though she honestly didn't believe it. Jaune had turned to the Grimm, so his friends had probably turned on him. Except that Ruby girl who would end up banging him, at least.

"She's right, we have no proof you did it," Salem agreed as well, nodding to Cinder to tell her she'd done well. The woman smiled back, happy with the silent praise. "I think we should just keep watching and see if this dream can clear our doubts."

**"Dammit Jaune, all of us were supposed to see Remnant's future!" Nokris yelled, throwing off his helmet. Revealing long black hair and a young handsome face with red and gold eyes that looked up Jaune with sorrow. Tears rolling down his face. Nokris began to suddenly disappear and he realized what was happening. He reached out for Jaune, yelling his name as he disappeared entirely. Jaune sighed as he looked around, his brothers disappearing along with some surviving Remnant guards while others were left behind to fight. He threw off his helmet, allowing her to get a good look at him. He looked tired but had a calm look on his face that was soon replaced with one that expressed acceptance. "TO ALL REMNANT GUARDSMEN! FIGHT! FIGHT SO THAT THESE MONSTERS NEVER TAKE OUR HOMES! SO THAT YOUR CHILDREN WILL WAKE UP TO A WORLD OF PEACE THAT THESE MONSTERS ARE TRYING TO TAKE! WE WILL DIE HERE BUT WE'RE TAKING THEM WITH US!" He yelled, raising his sword that soon sparked to life with energy. Crocea Mors. To finally see it was astonishing. It had long been modified to be large enough to not only be wielded by him after becoming Primaris Marine but to handle the energy of a power sword. **

"That's Crocea Mors now?" Ruby wondered out loud, inspecting the weapon. However, as it was being waved around by Jaune and already blurred by the dream-in-the-dream, she couldn't make out the details. "It looks cool…"

"Are you just ignoring the fact that Jaune is about to die?!" Weiss exclaimed, more like screeched, making her flinch. Of course she hadn't forgotten it and of course she wasn't ignoring it. She was just trying to focus on what she could to distract herself for what was about to come.

"Is there any chance he'll make it out of there alive?" Blake asked, looking around to see if anyone had the answer, but all she saw were uncertain frowns and helpless shrugs.

**Thara watched as her grandfather fought alongside the remaining guardsmen, slaying the monstrous marines as they tried to surround him. One by one, the guardsman fell but they died fighting as some of the monstrous marines fell by their hands. A group jumped onto one, detonating their explosives to kill that single marine. **

**Jaune soon found himself surrounded, the marines attacking him. Bolters fired as he tried to defend himself, his armor being blown off. An explosion knocked him to the ground, smoking coming off his armor as blood trinkled down his face, slowly rising from the ground.**

"Jaune!" Pyrrha exclaimed, looking in terror as her best friend was thrown to the ground, surrounded by monstrous enemies.

Salem's faction had already figured it out. Thara was dreaming about this because this was Jaune's last stand, where he would meet his demise.

Salem, however, was the only one to have noticed the fact that Nokris was… different. He wasn't Grimm-like and eternal in appearance like her, but instead youthful and human. What had changed, then? How had they turned into… her?

The pool of Darkness was one of pure destruction, so that couldn't be it, right? She'd never dropped anyone in it, believing it pointless, and never _had_ anyone to drop in it since the Grimm took care of them long before they could reach her castle, so she couldn't be certain… but what if that really was the answer?

**"I'm sorry Nokris...I'm sorry mother. But you are all needed for the future of our people. My brothers, you are needed to uphold our mother's dream. To ensure our people have a prosperous future." One monster ran up to him as he stood, only for it to be cut down but a bolter shot from one from the group struck his back but he didn't falter. Thara wanted to help but she couldn't move. Something wasn't allowing her to.**

"Cowards! One against dozens, and they even have to shoot him in the back!" Yang growled, fighting back anger and tears at the same time. A small, ignored part of her, however, was surprised and kind of proud that her friend had managed to last that long, and how well he had been fairing against those monsters.

"This is a war, they don't play fair," Mercury replied with a pinch of disdain in his voice, but no one called him out for that. Perhaps they just thought it brought back bad memories, and they weren't exactly wrong, but to be honest everything brought back bad memories.

**"I'll make sure none of you survive here! Every single one of you will die here with me!"**

**"Imperial dog! This planet will be a sacrifice to our god!" A monster retorted, its voice distorted and sounding not even human. "Thank that immortal for bringing us here!" One laughed as Jaune grit his teeth. That damn Wizard led them here. Damn him!**

Everyone but Salem and her gang exchanged glances. That was the second time this 'Wizard' was mentioned, and now they said he was also immortal. Magic and immortality were both impossible on their own, but combined? They confused the hell out of the students.

Cinder's team were all silently staring at Salem, sure that she'd explode soon.

To tell the truth she did look beyond furious and murderous at the moment, but she managed to reign in her emotions – _barely_ – and settled for just glaring at the monsters surrounding the boy – the same boy that in the future she apparently would come to care for as a mother.

She didn't know why Ozpin would do something like that, having always preferred to his subtle and inefficient countermeasures, but his hatred for her (fully mutual) must've boiled over tipping point for him to so blatantly attack.

**"I'm no dog of the Imperium!" Jaune yelled, as the monsters charged at him. He fought, despite his grievous wounds, fought with all his might. "I am Jaune Arc! Overlord of the Sons of Salem!" He kicked one back, before spinning on one motion and slicing the heads off a few. "Defender of Remnant and its people!" He raised his shield to block a chainaxe.**

"Damn though, look at him go, I must've taught him very well," Mercury whistled, slightly impressed with the knight's resolve and skill.

"_You_ must've taught him well?" Emerald scoffed as if the very notion were to be stupid. "Please, he probably learned it all by himself, or thanks to Cinder. The only thing you could teach him is how to be annoying."

Mercury just cackled at her annoyance, knowing fully well that between the two, Emerald didn't stand a chance against him. Petty homeless thief against assassin trained by one of the world's deadliest assassins? The only chance she had was to use her Semblance, and then run _very_ fast.

**Suddenly, A power sword pierced his back, running through him. Jaune coughed blood as he staggered forward but still stood, slaying the wielder of the sword by splitting its head in two.**

**"I am...my mother's shield. An older brother. A father..." The monsters surrounded him as he fell to a knee, one of them raising a bolter pistol to Jaune's head. "A son of Salem and a holder of her dream…" Jaune immediately brought up his shield, smashing in the face of the former marine. "And all of you will die here!" He looked up towards the sky and without hesitation, yelled out his final orders.**

**"****All ships fire on my position now! Let it rain fire!" He yelled, a thunderous sound was heard as Thara looked up, fire began to rain down from the sky towards them. The enemy force was panicked as the barrage was unrelenting. Thara looked over to her grandfather, only to see him vanish as explosions and fire engulfed the spot where he stood. She closed her eyes, only to open them again as there was only silence.**

A sombre silence spread among the watchers as the students lowered their heads, tears in their eyes.

"It's just a dream," Weiss said to Ruby, but probably to herself as well. She tried to wipe her tears without being seen, but new ones kept showing up. "He's sleeping back at Beacon."

"Weiss is right, think of this as just a dream," Ren nodded, agreeing with her reasoning. "I believe we've all seen friends die in our nightmares. This is no different. It cannot hurt you if you hold onto the knowledge that all of this is just a dream, an illusion weaved by our minds -or in this case Lord Khor's powers- that is in no way related to our reality."

"He is right, they both are," Salem spoke up, turning to look at them after a few seconds. There were no tears in her eyes, but there was a tension in her frame that hadn't been there before. "While I don't doubt that Lord Khor has some ulterior motive to show us this, it's still just a dream, nothing more."

**She looked around again, this time in the land of darkness. She could easily recognize it. Though she was in the outskirts, she thought..but it looked different. She saw the pools of Grimm but then saw stairs. A skeleton near the first step. Something told her to climb and she did. Eventually reaching the top, she saw the stair descended down to a large altar line area. Near the center was the biggest pool of Grimm she'd ever seen. Unknown to her, this the place where Salem was reborn. She looked down, seeing Salem along with the bodies of her surviving uncles. Grimm and Remnant guard all around them as She ran down, running up to them.**

"What are those things?" Blake asked, trying to distract herself from seeing her friend die.

"I'm not sure myself," Salem lied, shrugging lightly. "But Thara seems to recognize them."

**Thara noticed that they were stripped of their armor save for the lower part of the black body suit covering their lower body. Their wounds were more grievous than she thought. Thara saw the various surgical scars that covered their bodies from the various procedures needed to become a Primaris marine. Interface ports were also seen like from the hologram, surgically grafted to their bodies to ensure their armors ran optimally. She's seen them before when her uncles wore regular robes and such but it was still an uneasy sight. Nokris never allowed her to actually be there for the surgeries but she could tell they looked painful to put in. Salem's cries and the cursing of someone drew her attention away from them to her.**

Salem's eyes widened. Was she crying? Did she really care?

**"Damn you Ozma. Damn you! You've taken too much from me! I won't let you take more!" She cried out, her hair was dishevelled as she walked towards her sons. Thara could easily tell they were all near death. "I won't let you take my sons…" she snapped her fingers and the Remnant guard began to lift the large bodies of her sons. **

The Queen of the Grimm shook her head in disbelief, staring at the ground. After millennia, what had made her change her mind? Who had managed? She vowed to never have family again, as it would only lead to eternal pain once they inevitably preceded her to the grave. Had this Jaune Arc done it?

**With the help of the Grimm, each one was thrown into the massive pool. Disappearing into the black liquid. Salem slit her hand open, letting blood drop into the pool as she chanted some words. Thara watched the wound close up and something else go into the pool. Salem ordered everyone to back up as she looked down. The bubbles slowly stopped as she clenched her fist tight as the liquid went still. "Live my sons...live...please…." She quietly said as Thara neared the liquid.**

"What is she doing?" Nora whispered confused, trying to get a better look. "Did she just-"

"She didn't drown them," Cinder replied snappily before taking a deep breath to calm herself. She recognize those pools, but not the biggest one. She had an idea of what was about to happen. "Otherwise she wouldn't have asked them to live. Something else must be happening."

**Suddenly a hand shot out of the liquid and grabbed hold of the edge of the pool, the figure pulled itself out, gasping for breath as he pulled someone with him. Thara saw it was Nokris to surface first, his skin as deathly white as she remembered. He coughed and gagged as the person he helped bring up with him did the same. Karn. Then the others started to surface as Salem smiled. The Remnant guard and Grimm came to their sides as they helped pull them from the pool. Thara saw a larger hand grab hold of the pool and she knew who that was, Ares. He had grown to the titanic size she knew him for. **

"That's how they became Grimm…" Weiss murmured as everyone in the dream was shocked silent. Even Salem couldn't believe her eyes, couldn't believe it actually worked. Did the Pool of Darkness and the Pool of Light merge into one single pool of eternal life and destruction?

"So what are those pools?" Blake whispered just as quietly, staring at the black liquid. "They turn people into… Grimm?"

"So it would seem," mumbled Neo, narrowing her eyes at Salem, who stared back evenly.

**"So this is how it happened." She thought to herself as she watched Salem walk up to Nokris and kneeled down to him as he coughed up more of the black substance.**

**"I'm relieved to see you all healed."**

**"Mother...I don't see Jaune." He asked her. Salem looked down.**

**"He's gone…" was all that she said.**

The students all flinched at the reminder.

**"We will ensure his death is avenged, mother. We will uphold our promise to you, but first we must end this war." Nokris stated, his eyes now the same as Salem's. Salem nodded, before going to her other sons.**

**Thara blinked as she saw the nine sons of Salem leading various armies across Remnant. They were brief flashes of moments she didn't understand.**

"So this was before they conquered Remnant?" Weiss wondered.

"Possibly. We cannot be sure as the Imperium has already been mentioned," Ren rationalized, thinking deeply. "We do not have a reliable date to mark the passing of time, and we don't know if this Grimm Salem conquered Remnant before or after the Imperium arrived. Or at least, we don't remember if it was mentioned."

"It's possible for the Imperium to have arrived before s-she unified Remnant," Salem replied, cursing herself for stuttering slightly, but to be honest she wasn't used to refer to herself in third person. "It would take a long time, after all, especially due to the resistance the people would undoubtedly show initially."

"And for good reason," Blake mumbled.

**She watched as the brothers carried Jaune's body into a small mausoleum made from dark purple Crystals. "The actual Mausoleum wasn't built yet." Thara watched as another vision appeared before her accompanied by a female voice.**

**"You must come to understand them all. You are afraid of one, for the horrors he inflicts. See why he inflicts and understand why he walks this path." the voice told her, she herself couldn't speak or else she would demand to know who they were."**

"So this is something like what Lord Khor did to us, huh?" Pyrrha commented, frowning slightly. While she was sure she could handle whatever illusionary future Khor decided to show her, she wasn't as sure about Thara. They both went to Beacon but in a world apparently in peace with itself, people not involved in the interstellar wars tended not to really know about the horrors of the world. Thara would probably be scarred for life by that experience.

"It is possible." Cinder shrugged slightly. The notion wasn't nearly as far-fetched as one might've thought. After all, if Lord Khor was capable of doing it _and_ willing to do it, there was no reason for any other entity with similar powers to do the same to other people. The only strange thing was that they were dreaming about a dream. It was confusing to say the least. It made her wonder… what if they too were just a dream of a future or past shown to some other people by a greater entity?

**This time another flash, a boy crying. He was crying but no sound came. She looked around, it was a dirty dimly lit room. Like a cell. She looked at the boy, he was so pale that he looked like a ghost. "How long has he been in here?" She thought. She got closer to him startled by the fact that his entire left arm was gone! She saw staples where the socket was, surgery staples. Meaning his arm was amputated! When she got a closer look at him, she realized he looked no older than 8 years old!**

"Oh my god what happened to that child!" Yang exclaimed, horrified. She instinctively grabbed her left arm as if she'd been the one to lose it. "And he's in a cell!"

"What kind of monster would do that?!" Weiss screeched, enraged.

Salem chose to stay silent. She might not particularly like torturing children, but it was something she'd had her underlings do before and it never really bothered her. She accepted the notion that she was evil – in fact, she embraced it. But she was a necessary evil, and her actions were fully justified. Perhaps she would have to suffer in the pits of damnation for the rest of eternity, but at least she'd have other immortals there, and she wouldn't be forced in an eternal cycle of battling on that broken and godforsaken planet.

**His hair was a mess, his cheeks were stained with tears and every exposed parts of his skin she could see were riddled with surgical scars. The boy looked up at the dimming light of his cell, what she saw horrified her more. A large wound running along his neck, fresh stitches along it to keep the wound close. surgery! She saw such anger in his eyes as he opened his mouth, as if to speak but no noise came.**

"What-"

"They surgically removed his vocal chords from his larynx so that he could not speak," Neo guessed, scowling. Being mute wasn't fun, that was clear to her. Even though she'd managed to become a successful criminal without her voice, it had all been thanks to Torchwick. Without him, she wouldn't have known where to start. He'd been her voice while she was his sword. But to see a child deprived of a voice he did have, made her blood boil in a way nothing else could.

"Why would they do that?!" Yang exclaimed, horrified.

"I don't know, why would they remove his arm?" she replied emotionless.

Yang flinched and, perhaps remembering how Neo herself used to be mute, decided to stop talking.

**"Did...did they take his voice?" The question lingered in her head as the vision slowly faded to show the boy, who was filled with such Anger and Hatred, being replaced by a visage of a helmeted Atriox, the world ender. One of her uncles and the one she feared the most. "I-is this-" her thought interrupted as a woman's voice began to speak;**

**"Atriox. The youngest and last to become Salem's son. A boy who had a unique semblance that he didn't understand but was feared by many For it. Sold by his parents to a scientist known as Merlot, who used the young Atriox in various experiments." images popped up of the young boy who she now knew was Atriox under surgeries, forced to use his semblance on other test subjects and the eventual amputation of his healthy arm. **

**"Tired of the boy's cries, Merlot ripped out his voice box so as to have peace. Saved by Nokris, Salem gave the child what he had been denied for so long...a family." **

Though horrified by what they were seeing, the students hardened their hearts a little bit when they heard who the child would become.

True he hadn't deserved that, but his crimes far outweighed those of the other Sons of Salem. Even Ares couldn't come close, and he had been the one to burn an entire city to the ground.

Salem frowned. She had cared about them. She had cared about him. But why? What had driven her to taking the chance of losing her family _again_? What had driven her to risk her heart to love once again, knowing that her children would be destined to die before she did? Why take children not even related to her by blood? Well, that last question might've had something to do with her unappealing Grimm appearance.

Ren was scowling at the screen. He wouldn't go as far as saying that the young Atriox deserved it, but perhaps his hatred for the Nuckelavee was stronger than he remembered, because he silently seethed how the present -or future, whatever- Atriox fully deserved those punishments for all the evil he had inflicted on the world.

**The vision changed to a time during the Old War; she saw Atriox, donned in the Grimm colored power armor with his notorious Helmet fashioned into that of an Imp. He sat upon his mount, a large horse-like Grimm known as a Nightmare. She knew of these Grimm, she knew Atriox rode an Alpha of the species that was much larger and more aggressive that he named Pestilence. He looked as if he were a Nuckelavee or Death personified...**

**Atriox sat upon his mount above dozens of wounded Atlas soldiers, they were surrendering and begging the armored giant to be spared. Thousands of small rat Grimm surrounded them.**

"He does look the part," Mercury admitted grimly, already guessing where that was going. He'd seen enough horror movie to know what came after, and even though he was used to death, he still didn't like drawn-out tortures. It wasn't his style. An assassin was supposed to kill quickly and efficiently, not drag it on forever.

"I'd say," Ren gritted out through clenched teeth, staring daggers at the monster in front of him.

**"But, due to the horrors inflicted onto him as a youth, he felt no compassion to anyone that wasn't his family or for those that would dare raise arms against Queen Salem and their people." **

"As if he would've had mercy in the first place," scoffed Weiss. Seeing Salem and her faction stare at her, she huffed imperiously. "Those were Atlasian soldiers. We've already seen how none of the Sons of Salem spared the Atlasian soldiers during the war."

"Actually, that was just Karn, called the Butcher of Atlas for that very reason," Ruby argued weakly. "We did see Nokris give those rebels a chance to surrender…"

"That was Malach, ninth born of Salem and thus the youngest right after Atriox," Cinder recalled quickly, remembering the man and his massive mount. "We haven't seen Nokris in battle yet."

**Atriox lifted his left arm, revealing a four fingered Grimm shadow arm that had replaced his amputated limb. Pieces of his power armor were infused into the Grimm appendage. Clutched in his hand was a massive scythe that he used to cut down the one soldier who was begging for mercy for him and his comrades. It was also a signal for the surrounding rat Grimm to pounce on the survivors, an ocean of Grimm rats began to feast upon the dozens of human survivors, their horrified screams not phasing the armored giant as he had his mount walk past the various struggling forms. **

Weiss, Ruby and Nora ran to the corner from earlier and threw up what little they had left in their stomachs.

"Damn…" Mercury might've expected it, but that didn't mean he was ready for it. Neo was more or less in the same boat, plus she really didn't like those tiny Grimm rats.

Salem narrowed her eyes. Why did she scold Ares for his actions, if she allowed Atriox to exterminate through such agonizing methods?

She shook her head. What was she doing?! It wasn't a matter of being fair to her 'sons'!

**"While his brothers may offer mercy, Atriox does not. Believing complete destruction is needed to preserve their way of life. He saw future rebels. He could feel their anger and hatred. Such emotions he knew well. He knew they could be a driving force for a rebellion. Another war. One that he could prevent with their deaths." **

"So, in a way, he's similar to Ares," Ren noted with a scowl, silently adding Ares to his dislike list.

"In a way, though Ares believes in fighting everyone to the death, while Atriox doesn't seem to particularly care if the death is done by fighting or by execution of the defeated," Emerald replied, feeling slightly sick herself.

**Thara closed her eyes as the vision of The wounded soldiers being devoured vanished.**

Many people sighed in relief as the horrid images faded away.

**"He learned that to protect his family and his mother's kingdom, he would need to ensure no compassion was shown and that there is such a thing as necessary evil." **

**She saw a vision of Atriox destroying a planet with his battle fleet, a holographic Nokris yelling at him for it. "The Imperium...would have killed us all...if the Xenos lived…" only a handful of voices spoke from a single Vessel. A far cry from the hundreds she's heard before.**

"So he still doesn't have that many Vessels and Decayed yet," Ren mumbled, eyes narrowing. While he wanted to kill the Knuckelavee, not the similarly-inspired Son of Salem, he still took notice of how Atriox would gather his army over time, rather than all at once.

Although he still didn't think he'd be easy to defeat or kill even without his army.

**"They were surrendering Atriox! There was-"**

**"I WILL….NOT ALLOW...COMPASSION TO...THREATEN OUR...FAMILY...AND PEOPLE...brother…." The voices yelled in anger as Atriox stared at his brother.**

"So basically, he kills people because he believes that in doing so, they will never be able to hurt his family?" Weiss guessed, using her handkerchief to rub the stains of vomit from her mouth, still tasting its foul smell.

"The end goal justifies the methods used to reach it," Cinder nodded slowly. "While I do not completely agree with this saying, I believe it does sum up Atriox's reasoning pretty well."

**"Life or death. Atriox came to understand there was no in between. Only the two." The voice spoke to Thara as darkness surrounded her. "Right or wrong. Those things did not matter. Only the protection and survival of the Remnant Sector."**

**"Learn from the past, find the answers to understand and secure the future...before it's too late." The voice said, sounding as if it surrounded her. **

**"What do you mean? Who's there?" She finally spoke. "Seek the place the knight fell…and I will show you more..." **

"Does she mean Jaune?" Ruby exclaimed, raising her head from where she'd been puking her dinner on the floor. "Does she want Thara to find the battlefield from the beginning?"

"I think so…" Blake murmured. "But I have a bad feeling about it…"

**"Wait!?" She yelled, jolting awake as she breathed heavily. Her door suddenly burst open as three Remnant Guard ran into her room, their weapons scanning the room. When all seemed clear they lowered their weapons.**

**"Your highness, are you alright?" One asked as he approached her. Thara nodded as she calmed her breathing.**

"Wait, _your highness_?" Yang repeated, incredulous.

The others had pretty much the same reaction. Weiss, Pyrrha, Ren, Cinder and Emerald had been shocked speechless, staring at the guard who had spoken with wide eyes. Nora did a weird little victory dance for her leader. Blake, Emerald, Mercury and Salem were all trying to form words, but failing, while Neo was just blinking, not understanding the need for the title.

Ruby, instead, managed to speak after her sister. "Well, if Thara is a descendant of Jaune's, and he was the firstborn, I guess she's currently the heir to the throne or something, or at least some sort of princess."

**"My lord, the room is clear and the princess is alright." One said to the communicator within his helmet. "Of course my lord." The Remnant guard grabbed something from within a pouch, a small holographic communicator. Within seconds the upper body of a small figure appeared, a sons of Salem Primaris Marine. Tenne, one of Queen Salem's royal guards. **

**"Your highness, are you sure you are well? I heard you scream from outside." He said to her, Thara looked at her down below, There was Tenne speaking into the communicator. Unlike the other Primaris Marines, Royal guards wore large shoulder capes on the right side of their armor. Their armor painted purple with gold trim, Salem's ancient Royal Crest on their right pauldron. A large spear-like weapon held tightly in his right hand. She sighed as Tenne looked up at her. **

"I can't believe that the sleep-in-class, semi-rebellious, don't-wanna-study girl was a princess all along," Yang mumbled, shaking her head. "What's next, Vomit Boy being the heir to the throne of some kingdom no one knows of?"

"I highly doubt that," Pyrrha said. "He told me that while his family does have a big income of money, they aren't rich or influential, much less in any position of power."

**"I'm fine, just...a dream is all." Yes, a dream…**

**"Alright then your Highness, its still late. Get some rest, the meeting of Governors is tomorrow and all the heirs have been told to go by your Grandmother's orders." Tenne told her as the communicator shut off and the Remnant guard left her room. **

**She sighed, she had completely forgotten about it. It happened once a year but this year was gonna be different, all the heirs to the first ten were to be there as well from the "illustrious" Ember Fall heiress of Nokris and Cinder's lineage, to her teacher Raye Sustrai the heiress of Ares and Emerald's lineage, and to even the tomboyish laid back Steele Black the heiress to Malach's lineage after he adopted the family after Mercury Black's passing.**

"Wait a second, so Cinder married Nokris, Emerald married the mountain-man Ares, and I just kicked the bucket so that my children could be adopted by Malach?!" Mercury yelled, more than a little pissed and outraged.

Emerald burst out laughing at his chagrin, and that was the trigger that made Neo and the students start to laugh as well. Salem didn't find it funny, but she graciously allowed it.

Mercury glared at them all. "Fuck you. And Emerald, I wouldn't laugh if I were you, Ares is a ten feet tall monster of a man. In bed, he's gonna break you in two faster than he does the bed."

Emerald shrieked in anger and tried to tackle him, but Cinder held her back, knowing fully well how a brawl between the two would end. "Calm down, Emerald. Mercury is just trying to mend his bruised ego." Cinder's smirk cheered the mint-haired girl up a little bit before she turned to the assassin. "And Mercury, you might've just died of old age. Malach and the other Sons of Salem seem to be immortal, and it's likely for him to have been your friend while you were alive, so it makes sense why he would take in your family."

**All of the heirs were to be there for this meeting and she didn't know why. She was going in her mother's stead, since she was the next Heiress to take the mantle as head of her house and should something ever happen to Salem, the next Queen of the Remnant Sector. The very thought terrified her…**

"So she _is_ the heir to the throne?!" Weiss basically screeched. "Her?! Why not Nokris?!"

"Because the Sons of Salem are already the Generals," Salem replied, inwardly rolling her eyes at the students' surprise and shock. "They need someone to take care of the more mundane things, and to organize the kingdom. Or well, Sector, I suppose."

"That sounds boring…" noted Ruby, earning nods of agreement from just about everyone.

"It… is. It really is," sighed Blake, shaking her head. She knew her parents were always busy, and they only ruled Menagerie. To rule an entire space system… well, that was much worse.

**"Seek the place the knight fell….and I will show you more…" the words kept repeating in her head as Thara dozed off. Her thoughts on her Grandfather. "I've seen that spear before…." She thought as she finally slept.**

Pyrrha whimpered as the dream faded around them.

"Pyrrha, we told you, it probably wasn't you," Ren tried to reassure her, but she just looked away. "Why don't you ask for Jaune's opinion when we get back? I'm sure he will tell you the same."

"But what if-"

"Pyrrha, there's no way you'd actually try to hurt, much less kill, our leader," Nora butted in, grabbing her forearm. "You'd never do that, not even accidentally. You're too good for that and we are a team, a family. I'm sure you are innocent. Even if that does turn out to be your spear, I'm sure it wasn't you who used it."

Pyrrha nodded weakly.

"_**Well, if you're done talking, what do you say about waking up now?**_" By now, Lord Khor's familiar voice didn't even startle them any more as the Beacon hall reappeared. The man was standing a few feet away, apparently busy cleaning the purple scales on his arms and hands. "_**I'm sure you all want to discuss this with your friend, don't you?**_"

"Will we remember to ask him about Nokris?" Nora asked the entity.

He just shrugged. "_**That's up to you, not me. I wish you good luck on that, seeing as you haven't managed for the past few times. Dreams can be sometimes very slippery, and thoughts had during those dreams just as much. You might forget to ask once again, or you-**_"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, you don't want to answer that," Mercury cut him off, earning himself a glare from Cinder and Salem, both of which would've been enough on their own, but that combined made him shrink and cower, much to Emerald's amusement.

"_**You're not wrong,**_" Khor shrugged again, accepting the critique. "_**So, without further ado, good morning.**_"

And once again, the dream faded into nothing, and the eight Dreamers woke up in their respective beds, although for the first time in centuries, Salem decided to allow herself to sleep in, having a lot to think about.

Pyrrha was the first to get up, and immediately rushed to Jaune's bed, checking if he was there. Finding him still asleep, she placed a hand on his chest and listened to his beating heart, trying to reassure herself that the future had been wrong…

…and that she would not try to kill her best friend.

**_AN PS: I have no idea if the spear is Pyrrha's so don't ask me. I'm supposing it is considering both the colours, the simple fact it was mentioned over the rest (Chekov's gun and all) and Thara's reaction to it, but I am not the author of the story so I have NO idea if it really is._**


End file.
